Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Havin' Sex With Beau Smith

      Karyn Pinter
      January 19, 2004
      Busted Knuckles
    Recent
    • Revisiting the Witchblade/Fathom/Tomb Raider Crossover

      Daniel Gehen
      February 8, 2021
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • Ranking all 23 Marvel Movies including 4 Avengers movies

      Karyn Pinter
      June 6, 2020
      Big Two, Collectibles, Marvel Comics, Miscellaneous Comic Book Content
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES VIRTUAL PORTFOLIO REVIEW PROGRAM

      Karyn Pinter
      July 1, 2020
      News, Press Release, Valiant
    Recent
    • 4.0

      Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past

      Stephen Cook
      March 3, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 3.0

      Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and The New Land

      Karyn Pinter
      October 19, 2011
      Reviews
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • 2.3

      Review: SAVAGE #1 Needs Taming

      Daniel Gehen
      February 16, 2021
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Interview: John Higgins on creating that "boo" moment in Razorjack

      Karyn Pinter
      October 7, 2013
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Handguns, Hormones, and Hijinks: A Look at Grant Morrison and Philip Bond’s Kill Your Boyfriend

      Karyn Pinter
      September 16, 2015
      Classic Comics, DC Comics
    Recent
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Reliving the Craziest Decade in Comics History: An interview with Jason Sacks

      Mark Stack
      January 2, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Girls Love comics!

      Karyn Pinter
      November 11, 2013
      Kickstarter Spotlight, News
    Recent
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • SAVAGE DRAGON IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 17, 2021
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Jason Shiga and His Deliciously Demented 'Demon'

      Karyn Pinter
      May 9, 2017
      Books
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past
  • Collecting Profile: Blue Beetle
  • Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia
  • Collecting Profile: Kraven the Hunter
  • Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good
  • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Interviews

Shaun McLaughlin: More Confusion Than Bitterness

Karyn Pinter
August 30, 2011
Interviews

Just recently I got to have a little chat with Shaun McLaughlin, producer, writer and stage actor. We spoke about previous works like Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited, his current involvement with Eternal Descent and Cheapjack Shakespeare and what he’s got coming up.



Karyn: So you’ve done a fair amount of work on some of the DC cartoons, most notably Justice Leagueand Batman Beyond. With Justice League, did you find it difficult to pull stories from the comics and keep them intact while having them translated to a 30-minute cartoon?

Shaun: The writers weren’t necessarily pulling stories from the comics. There was some stuff that was inspired by what happened in the comics, but off the top of my head I can’t think of any direct adaptations. You have to understand that there’s a long lead-time between script and airing, as much as a year, and that I was done when the last episode of Justice League Unlimited was done. I left Warner in January of 2006. That was five years ago and, really, I’m not very bright. The other day my son was watching an episode with Deadman in it and I stopped and thought “When did we do Deadman?” I used to have all that on right at the front of the cranium. Could tell you episode numbers, storyboard artists, writers, etc. 

One of the reasons the first batch of Justice Leagues were 2 parters was the problem with servicing all those characters in a 20-minute script. If we ran into any problems like that it wasn’t any big deal to do longer arcs. 

Justice League Unlimited was designed to deal with shorter stories and introduce more of the DCU into animation. You’ll see that those stories were a lot less involved, but there was more of an over-arching season arc.

You’d think it would be easier to adopt a comic into a cartoon than it is. They’re about the same length and there are structural similarities to the story telling. But you don’t have commercial breaks in comics (there are ads but I never got a decent answer if there’s any rhyme or reason where they go) and dialogue on the page is a very different thing coming out of actor’s mouths. Something, I’m sad to say, a lot of people don’t know or care about. Too many cartoons have lazy dialogue copped from comics or other cartoons. That makes me crazy.

Karyn: Then with Batman Beyond a whole new era of the Bat legacy was created. Was that just like walking on eggshells knowing or not knowing how fans of Batman would accept it?

Shaun: Ummm. Hm. I don’t think so. We had just finished the run of the re-designed Batman episodes that aired as New Batman/Superman Adventures. People don’t remember how radical that re-design was and a lot of the Internet word (ah, the halcyon days of USNET– seems like the Flintstones now, doesn’t it?) was that it would never fly, it was too radical, blah, blah, blah. There were people who had written on the show dissing it before it aired. So when that was successful I think we were pretty cocky when they started talking about a new, younger Batman. I think the big fear was just not to do something stupid and keep it cool.

Things were a lot different then. Bruce and Glenn and Alan and Paul came up with the concept and ran with it. When we did Static Shock it was different. It was a lot of fun to be around that much unfettered energy. 

Karyn: What was it like writing for TV? I saw on IMDB that you had done a few episodes for Pinky and the Brain and The New Adventures of Johnny Quest.

Shaun: Yeah. I wrote for Pinky and The Brain, Batman Beyond, Quest, Brothers Flub and a few other things. I started out wanting to be an actor, but I always wrote. My first gig was Aquaman for DC and I after that I wrote and developed a live-action pilot. 

People don’t want to believe it, but writing for TV is like any other job and a lot of it depends on who you’re working with. I’ve had great story editors and I’ve had people who seemed they were doing everything they can to make it impossible.

I LOVE the actual writing. One of the things I DON’T like about TV is outlines. Totally necessary to the process but it’s like doing all the work without any of the fun part of writing. 

Also, the other thing people don’t want to hear is that the biggest part of the job is getting your next job. I teach a Business of Performing Arts class at a local University and that concept seems to be the killer. Every time I tell a class something like that you should see the expressions on their faces. It’s like I’ve killed their puppy.

Looking back the weird thing is that I was never really intimidated by doing any of that. I can sometimes get more intimidated now than I did when I was first starting. Hey! Maybe I’m getting younger! That would be cool!

Karyn: You mentioned Gene-Fusion when I first emailed you, could you tell me a little more about that project?

Shaun: It was the project I went on right after leaving WB. It was an independent privately financed DTV based on the Gene-Fusion property that Beckett published. It was created by Jeff Amano and written by Gabriel Benson, who also produced. It was released this past May from MTI Home Video and is available just about everywhere– On Demand, iTunes and I think there’s probably a zoetrope around, too. It was my first time doing a totally CGI project and I really liked it. We used software that’s usually used for video games and a team who also usually did games. The director was Francois Brisson, who did amazing work.

The concept was to create something for people who have grown out of Pokemon. It’s 2310 and the hottest sport is Gene-Fusion, a combat game with created animals. But then we find out the technology to create those animals was stolen from an alien civilization and they want it back.

I had so much fun doing this that I can’t even describe it. Can’t wait to do more.

Karyn: How did you get involved with Beckett comics?

Shaun: We shared an agent at one time. It was really as simple as that. I left Warners and they were looking for someone to produce this movie for them.

I was SO lucky that it was a great experience. I’ve interviewed for other jobs that you know are just going to be horrible and I’ve been lucky enough to avoid that.

Karyn: What role will you be playing in adapting Fade From Grace and The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty?

Shaun: I’m attached to Fade to direct it as a live-action feature. We’ve been trying to get it up and running with a very original concept. But we’re finding that perhaps it’s too original a concept. Oddly, no one seems interested
if you go in and pitch them on a really good film and explain why it’ll be a very good film. The replies are, basically, “How can you make this more like other stuff?” That’s not bitterness. Well, okay. Maybe a little. But more confusion than bitterness. With a modicum of amusement.

It’s a really lousy time for financiers of independent film. There’s just not much money out there and what is out there wants big stars attached. Stars are great, but they don’t really guarantee making money and if we wanted to make that kind of movie, we’d go to a studio.

Beauty isn’t mine, but there are things we’re talking about. It’s a project I really like and want to be involved with. Gabriel Benson should get a lot more attention than he does for some of the new ground he broke in comics. 

I think I should be clear that I don’t work for Beckett. I like their projects and I think they like me. 

Karyn: Can you tell us what’s going to be happening with those comics? Will they be large market films, or smaller, independent works?

Shaun: Beauty, I don’t know. As I said, I’ve spoken about it, but it’s not mine. The idea for Fade is to do a smaller film. What drew me to it was that it was a smaller, more emotional story and I pitched them the idea of doing a superhero festival film. I really don’t know where we’re going to go with that. The market is changing very quickly. 

Beauty…well, it’s a project that we like a lot and every few months there are phone calls and…

Karyn: Let’s talk about Cheapjack Shakespeare. I checked out your website and that sorta seems to be your pet project. What’s the story behind that?

Shaun: Well, I dabble in acting for the stage and the occasional web project (you can check out our webseries “Bullpen Comics” ). Cheapjack began as my memories about a summer I spent on tour with a Shakespeare company and grew from there. I would tell this story about a night we got heckled by some guys at a park and it turned into a fight between a bunch of guys in Cat Tractor caps and the cast ofRichard III. People enjoyed that story. I worked on it as a screenplay for years and could never get traction until one day it just clicked. I actually did it as a part of my MFA. Because it’s so hard to get financing for a feature, especially a small feature about an outdoor Shakespeare festival, I started to turn it into an online comic. The response has been mixed from people who really get it to people who say “Nothing’s happening” to people who are really confused and are wondering when the aliens were going to show up or the actors were going to be recruited to be spies. I didn’t think doing a comedy in comic book form was going to be something that groundbreaking. Really.

The most interesting thing is that the people who really respond well seem to be people who don’t really read comics. They seem surprised that A) it’s easy to read and B) it doesn’t have guys in tights beating the crap out of each other (well, it does, but in a totally different context) and C) it’s funny. 

That may be something comics publishers should pay attention to.

Karyn: I also saw somewhere that Cheapjack is going to be or was produced into a stage play. How did that come along?

Shaun: We actually staged it last year and it went very well. It’s a comedy about a Shakespeare company that has nothing and the stage version is about a company that had nothing trying to stage an adaptation of Cheapjack Shakespeare. 

I’m actually thinking about changing the title as we move forward. The title seems to scare people. It’s really not about Shakespeare. It’s about college student drinking and jumping into bed with each other. It’s Animal House with tights. We’ve actually come close to getting this off the ground as a feature the past year and I think it’s going to happen.

Karyn: Is there anything else you’d like to talk get out to our readers? Any up and coming projects you’re really excited for?

Shaun: My new play, Internal Continuity, opens 9/9 (Roadless Travel) and I’m really excited about that. It’s a play about pop culture geeks from the tabletop gaming/first Star Wars generation realizing that life– and pop culture is passing them by. When one decides to make some changes it throws things into a tizzy because two geeks is exponentially lonelier than three geeks.

In addition to that, I’m writing 2 issues of Llexi Leon’s Eternal Descent over at IDW and talking about doing some more comics, as well as something exciting with Eternal Descent. I don’t feel like I’ve really done what I can do in comics and want to rectify that. 

And I just got some very interesting phone calls about some TV work. It’s amazing how things you think you’d never hear from again show up.

Thanks Shaun!

 



Karyn PinterShaun McLaughlin

Share On:
Tweet
WLG #376: Short but Sweet
ADVANCE REVIEW: Sonic the Hedgehog #228

About The Author

<a href="http://comicsbulletin.com/byline/karyn-pinter/" rel="tag">Karyn Pinter</a>
Karyn Pinter

Karyn Pinter is a writer for Comics Bulletin

Related Posts

  • 4.0

    Singles Going Steady 10/1/2013: An eight-pack of great comics – plus one

    Daniel Elkin
    October 1, 2013
  • 3.5

    Review: Cauliflower for Al Jordan

    Karyn Pinter
    June 8, 2012

Latest Interviews

  • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

    Daniel Gehen
    June 8, 2020
  • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

    Mike Nickells
    March 4, 2020
  • Simon Roy

    Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

    Mike Nickells
    January 29, 2020
  • Interview: V.E. Schwab on revisiting Red London in The Steel Prince

    Stephen Cook
    March 13, 2019
  • Interview: David Foster Wallace and Hellblazer, words on Wyrd with writer Curt Pires

    Stephen Cook
    February 27, 2019
  • “The Night Has Teeth” An Interview with Sarah deLaine, Artist of Image Comics’ “Little Girls”

    Jason Sacks
    February 26, 2019
  • Interview: Caitlin Kittredge talks the future of Witchblade

    Daniel Gehen
    February 12, 2019
  • Interview: Andy Nakatani and the Future of Weekly Shonen Jump

    Daniel Gehen
    December 19, 2018
  • INTERVIEW: Todd Matthy talks robots, princesses, and bridging the divide with storytelling

    Stephen Cook
    September 13, 2018
  • INTERVIEW: Gallaher & Ellis discuss THE ONLY LIVING GIRL

    Daniel Gehen, Thea Srinivasan
    September 7, 2018
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders