Newsarama has the scoop on the delay of “The Insiders” #1

360ep announced today that the launch of its new comic series, The Insiders, has been postponed. The first issue will still have its remarkable 7-cent cover price, but Insiders #1 will not be released until later in 2006.

Newsarama says: “The Insiders does exactly what a first issue should do. It builds an interesting story and plants a flag to point you to the next issue. That you can get it for seven cents is just icing. Frankly, there is no good reason not to try The Insiders in March.”

What’s crazier than a 7 cent comic? A seven cent comic with a variant chase cover! IGN Comics has the scoop the eye-bending, variant cover to ‘The Insiders #1′ by Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a foremost expert in optical illusion artwork.

Be sure to click through and stare at the large-size version of the cover. That is a STATIC IMAGE, PEOPLE!

I wrote the words in this one.

I wrote the dialogue on a story Bill Jemas created.

It’s been difficult at times. It’s my first try at outright comedy and there’s a certain lack of confidence there on my part, and an inability to evaluate the humor elements of the script and feel secure about which jokes are working.

Still, my partners seem happy with the work so far, although two of them have remained very aloof throughout. That’s been a bit of a disappointment.

I turned a corner with it just about three weeks ago and eliminated what I think was a major problem gumming up the works. I did an intensive rewrite of the first two thirds that I had written, which felt VERY clunky to me. The resulting script was lean and smooth and flowed Captain Morgan’s.

It’s been hairy, but there’s a real sense of accomplishment.

There’s still a lot of work to be done. I skipped three scenes to get to “THE END” so I have to fill in the gaps there. There are some remnants from the first take that have to be worked out (or in…depending). And in general the jokes need work and the whole thing needs polishing.

But what I have today is 99% of a first draft that I’m happy with.

Prep work is stuff like researching the subject.

Watching a bunch of movies in the same genre and taking copious notes (like writing down everything that happens in a movie, in 30 second blocks), then organizing those notes, observing story structure, scene length and generally trying to figure out why and how certain movies work.

Writing character histories and biographies (often starting with grandparents or great grandparents and leading up to the day before our script starts).

Making notes and outlines and 3×5 cards and more notes and writing treatments and getting notes and so on.

Stuff like that.

I always find the prep work very difficult. The research can be super interesting (depending on the subject) but there’s this nagging feeling that if I’m not generating script pages, then I’m not being productive. It can be a tough thing to get past. When I feel unproductive I start to get depressed too. Depression decreases productivity. The vicious circle turns, and it can become a downward spiral, usually involving alcohol, Taco Bell and sometimes firearms.

So?three months of that.

Thank God it’s mostly over and we (and by we I mean “me, myself and I”) can start writing pages now. Writing pages has the opposite effect. There’s the illusion that I’m being super-productive when I’m writing pages. Sure, some of those pages will be moved, rewritten whittled down or beefed up until they don’t really exist any more.

Still, each page is a tangible and measurable step towards the goal. Watching the page count rise is like ticking off the mile markers on a long car trip.

“Codename: Northwestern” is a project that found its way to me late last year. Like my previous spec script, one exciting aspect of it is the people I’m working with on it. Not naming names, but one would be familiar to any comic readers out there. The other will, within the next ten years, be familiar to most every film buff out there. The third is a new acquaintance that seems really cool in addition to having invaluable experience for us to draw from.

Codename: Northwestern: Now underway?

Thankfully, this Hitchcock masterpiece still plays pretty well. Sure, it has its share of implausibility and dated language and attitudes, but it’s also chock full of action, suspense, humor and romance. Definitely worth watching.

Anyhow, getting to the point of this bloggage. I don’t quite get the lynchpin plot point of this movie.

If you haven’t seen it: advertising man Roger O Thornhill is mistaken for a secret agent named Kaplan by a bad guy named Townsend (and later revealed to be Van Damme). Due to the mistaken identity, Van Damme tries to do away with Thornhill, thus spinning him into his thrilling adventure.

What I don’t get is: why or how did Van Damme ever arrive at the conclusion that Thornhill is Kaplan? Was this explained while my mind was wandering? I’ve already sent the DVD back to NetFlix so I can’t watch the movie again any time soon.

Anyone? Help a brother out?

Regardless of the answer, the movie is still highly recommended.