Brian Lynch: Spiders and Monkeys

By Sylvain Lebleu

Brian Lynch is a writer whose work I have, of late, grown to greatly appreciate. Until recently, the majority of comics I read were either published by Marvel or DC, so while I’m fairly new to the indy comics scene, many folks were already aware of Lynch’s work well before I first discovered him, or more specifically, his ongoing online series, Monkey Man, which features new material every Monday.

Lynch’s profile is definitely on the rise, given the recent release of his first work for Marvel, in Spider-Man Unlimited #1, the creative process of which will of course be discussed in the interview. He also has released three issues - through Angry Naked Pat - of Patchouli. In addition to his comics writing, Lynch is a screenwriter, who recently sold a spec script, The Next Muppet Movie, to Jim Henson Productions, a script named Nightcrawlers to Warner Brothers and later this year will see the DVD release of Big Helium Dog, a movie he did with Kevin Smith.


SYLVAIN LEBLEU: Spider-Man Unlimited #1 was released on January 14 and it represents your first work for Marvel. How did this assignment come about?

BRIAN LYNCH: I had written a ton of comics for angrynakedpat.com and moviepoopshoot.com, and self-published a mini-series called Monkey Man Unleashed, which my managers would always look at and go, “this is adorable, but get back to screenwriting now!” But then, one day, Marvel called them and asked if any of their clients would be interested in writing for comic books. My managers thought of me immediately. I wrote a couple of ideas down, Teresa Focarile, an editor there, picked a couple for me to flesh out, and one of them was the Slyde story that made it into Spider-Man Unlimited # 1. I also wrote a Ben Grimm story that Marvel seemed to like. I hope it gets made some day.

LEBLEU: Was it challenging to adjust to working under Marvel editorial guidelines, given that prior to this you were used to writing within your own continuity?

LYNCH: Oh, not at all. I buy new comics every Wednesday, so I knew what was going on with all the characters, and I was so excited to be able to just jump into the universe I had been reading about every week.

As for guidelines, basically Marvel said, “we want super hero action, but we also want a human element,” and let me run wild. There isn’t much difference between the draft I sent in and what you read.

One change was when Slyde hurled the stars at Spidey and missed every shot, Slyde’s original line was, “Curse your Spider sense, anticipating my every move,” which was changed to, “curse your agility,” because, as Teresa pointed out - and I really should have thought of this - Slyde wouldn’t know about his spider sense. I think another “damn” was changed to “crud”, too.

I gotta say, after working with movie studios, the encouragement and freedom I got from Marvel was shocking. I thought for sure the “Captain America and Hulk murdering Slyde’s parents” panel would at least be edited a bit, but nope, they liked it so it stayed as written. The whole Unlimited Spider-Man gig was a great experience.

LEBLEU: What was it like collaborating with artist Sean Chen and how different was it from collaborating with the artists from your own comic like DJ Coffman or Jessica Milazzo?

LYNCH: The experience with all three has been different. For Monkey Man Unleashed, I would send completed scripts to DJ, he’d draw it out, and then we’d email back and forth about changes in dialog or new story ideas while he was drawing.

Jessica and I see each other almost every day, and often we’ll talk about plots, characters, stories we want to try. I write it out, send it to her, and she draws rough thumbnails, shows them to me, I give notes, she disagrees, we fight, she makes some off-color comment about my mother, I cry because a dig at someone’s mama is personal, she says, “fine you big baby I’ll draw it the way you want it,” she goes home, draws, and later that night calls me all angry because she remembers I don’t have a mom - test tube thing, looooooooooong story - but it’s too late because her art is inked and I win.

For Sean, I didn’t know what to expect. Once Teresa called and said Marvel wanted to put out the story, I thought I wouldn’t see any of the art until the day it came out, but as soon as Sean was brought in as the artist, he called me and picked my brain for a while. We brainstormed about Slyde’s fighting style, and his new outfit - I think the description in the script was “a figure skater outfit crossed with Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe."

Sean also asked me what I thought Slyde should look like when the mask comes off, and I told him I pictured Steve Buscemi. A little later we found out Slyde was black and man oh man was my face as red as Slyde’s was – apparently - black.

Sean would also email me pages as he penciled them, which he totally didn’t have to do, but he did anyway because he rules like no other can. And he never, ever said a disparaging remark about my non-existent mother.

Working with Sean has been one of the highpoints of career so far. I mean, look at his work, it’s perfect. I knew he was great at super hero action and dramatic moments, but his instinct for comedy is razor sharp. It was really an honor.

LEBLEU: Given that Slyde isn’t really what we could call a popular villain, why did you choose to use him instead of some other characters? Did Marvel ask you to write the character, or is it someone you picked for comedic value?

LYNCH: For the purposes of the story, I needed a villain that wasn’t being used, as I was going to drastically change him. I kinda figured if I had used a popular villain, Marvel would read it and ask, “hey, why’d you turn Green Goblin into a joke? We’re using him next month in a story, and if he’s a complete loser that might hinder things a little.” But that was fine because Slyde was always my favorite obscure Marvel character. He’s just so…goofy. I figured if someone with powers that lame would try and turn bad-ass, that’s funny in itself, so Slyde it was.

I’m just hoping if Slyde does come back - I love that character - I want to see him go straight and be a hero. If he winds up a chalk outline in The Pulse I’m gonna go to Bendis’ house and pout outside his office window.

LEBLEU: On your website, visitors can see an announcement for a comic called Long Story Short. What’s happening with this project? Since the first time I read the synopsis, I have had an uncontrollable urge to read it. It’s even haunting me at night!

LYNCH: Long Story Short is a trippy romantic comedy screenplay I wrote a few years ago. It combines a ton of my personal experiences with some outlandish, Monty Python type situations. The screenplay was passed around from studio to studio, and everyone didn’t know quite how to make it, but did want to call me and talk to me about it. They would ask, “where’d this come from?” or they’d tell me their favorite scene. One exec was drunk at a party and cornered me and kept saying, “that Long Story Short script is just so damn sexy, you know? Did you mean for it to be that sexy?” Which is kinda cool and somewhat creepy as the sex scenes in the movie are taken from my life.

I asked Jessica Milazzo, co-creator and artist on Patchouli, if she would draw it as this big 100 page graphic novel once we were done with Patchouli. It seemed like a natural evolution, as Patchouli is a PG-13 story about a bunch of people side-stepping around a relationship, and Long Story Short is an R rated tale about a group of people knee-deep in different relationships.

Unfortunately Jessica is swamped with work - she’s studying animation - so if I want to do Long Story Short any time soon, we’d have to go with a different artist. I would love for it to be done, just a matter of finding the right artist to click with the story.

As for the story, it’s about a group of friends, and how their relationships with their boyfriends, girlfriends, family, and each other defines them.

The main character in the script is Ripper Moody, who’s dating a girl emotionally and sexually unavailable to him, so he and his best friend - a beautiful girl who’s dating a burly caveman - deal with their frustrations by drawing on each other naked. That’s the backbone for this weird, twisting story involving five or six other characters, including this anti-social kid who throws job interviews so he doesn’t have to work, a fat kid who has been stuck in a fast food restaurant slide for so long he’s become a town legend, and a girl who can’t stop smiling no matter what the situation, who is loosely based on Denise Richards.

All the stories intertwine and come together for this really epic, weird ending. The book would be a big novel of sorts, not unlike Box Office Poison or Blankets - but not at all like either one in terms of content - so it would be pretty expensive to put out. I’ve been getting some cool emails from different comic companies expressing interest in working with me as a result of Spider-Man Unlimited. Maybe we’ll wind up finally doing it. It’s among the best stuff I’ve written. It’s certainly the most personal.

LEBLEU: Given that you’ve written for both movies and comics, what are the greatest challenges of each creative process? Has writing comics helped you flesh out some ideas for potential movie projects and vice versa?

LYNCH: When writing the first draft of screenplays or comic scripts, it’s pretty much the same, save for format. I simply write whatever I’d want to see or read. If a screenplay sells, I then have to deal with studio notes from five or ten or twenty execs, trying to please all of them at once while still remaining true to what I think the movie should be. That’s very hard to do, certainly pretty stressful, but the pay is great. Comics are kinda the opposite of that. The freedom is much greater, especially when you self-publish, Monkey Man stuff and Patchouli strips and comics are exactly what I and the artist want to do with no editorial input from anyone, for better or for worse. But the pay isn’t as good - and, again, when you self-publish you run the risk of losing money.

I think writing comics has refueled my love of being a writer. It’s great, after three years of rewriting a script - as I have done with a film called Nightcrawlers at Warner Brothers - to please studio execs, to be able to create this huge universe in comics, with no one to answer to but the artist, the audience, and myself.

Marvel is a happy medium between self-publishing and screenwriting for a studio. There’s editorial input but still plenty of creative freedom.

LEBLEU: Last year you worked on Scary Movie 3. How did you get this job and what was your involvement in the project?

LYNCH: One Wednesday in November of 2002, the head of Dimension Films, Bob Weinstein, called Kevin Smith and told him they were gonna go Wayansless for Scary Movie 3, and asked if Kevin wouldn’t mind reading the script for it whenever it was done, give notes, say what worked/what didn’t, etc. Kevin agreed, and then asked who was writing it. Bob wasn’t sure yet, Kevin suggested me, as I had written and directed a sketch comedy movie that he produced called Big Helium Dog. Bob called me, we got along famously, Bob asked me to come into the city and meet with him, I did, and by that Friday I was on a plane to Los Angeles to meet with David Zucker, who had been brought on to direct the film, Craig Mazin and Pat Proft, who were going to co-write it, and Robert K Weiss, who was the producer.

Mazin was the Weinstein’s boy, and Proft had worked with Zucker on Naked Gun, etc., so I kinda felt like the odd man out, but when I went home, I would email them scenes and jokes, a few of which made it into the final movie.

LEBLEU: What was it like to work with all those big names and did working with them help you to improve as a writer?

LYNCH: The initial meetings were a lot of fun, as I got to meet Weiss, Zucker and Proft, who’s work I admired for years, watch movies they wanted to parody, and make jokes with them during it - kinda like being the room for the funniest Mystery Science Theater ever.

As it went on, I felt less and less a part of the process, as they were in LA and I was back in New Jersey, and there were some differences in opinion as to what was funny and what wasn’t, but it was a learning experience, and I really learned to appreciate what a good friend Kevin was, as he went to bat for me a couple of times on the project.

I liked how the final movie came out, and when a character would say something I wrote and the audience would laugh, it was an awesome feeling. After they’d laugh, I’d stand up, take a bow and proudly declare, “you’re welcome”. Then they’d hit me, and I’d say, “well now you’re less welcome.”

LEBLEU: Most of your stories are filled with pop culture references and guest star appearances. How important is it for you to utilize pop culture in your stories?

LYNCH: It’s fun to reference movies and TV and comics, and every week I indulge in that with Monkey Man, but I’m careful not to make that the only joke. Peppering pop culture references in a script is fun and audiences really like it, but if that’s all you do, it gets boring really quick. A wise man once said, “too many pop culture references and all you got is MadTV…too few pop culture references and you’ve got the Bible,” which I thought was weird at first, but it’s kinda true because there was nary a Star Wars reference in The Old Testament.

LEBLEU: Patchouli is a satire of everyday life. Why did you choose to tell theses stories from the point of view of a woman?

LYNCH: Well, Jessica and I knew we wanted to do a comic strip together, it was just a matter of what it would be about. Patchouli was a supporting character in an Angry Naked Pat mini-series on our site, and Jess and I found ourselves talking about the character. We’d have fun brainstorming about her background, her friends, her family, etc., so we decided to make her the central character. The character of a beautiful, unapproachable girl who is more insecure than you was the seed where all the jokes and stories and supporting characters came from.

As the stories progressed, the other characters became more fleshed out, and it got to a point where the Patchouli stories were just as much about her friends Shel and Norm as they were about the titular character. But the entire series came from enjoying talking about Patchouli as a character.

LEBLEU: How and why did you develop Monkey Man, and how did you arrive at some of his rather uniquely comical powers such as the ability to morph into a harmless kitten?

LYNCH: Monkey Man is based on an urban legend in New Delhi, about a savage monkey that would stalk villagers and slash them with his metal claws. All the weird stuff, the buttons, the football helmet, the ability to turn into a kitten, is taken from what New Delhians claimed they saw.

When Kevin Smith was working on post-production for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, he wanted to make a fake website based on the one created for the movie, moviepoopshoot.com, so he asked if I would write a fake Aint-It-Cool type news and reviews, and I did as Monkey Man. I enjoyed the character so much, that when I started to draw Pat comic strips again, I included Monkey Man as a character. He proved so popular, we gave Monkey Man an advice column, where readers could send this ultra-violent, bordering on retarded monkey their questions.

So the springboard for Monkey Man was simply hearing about an Urban Legend and playing it with a bit. Since then he’s become his own thing, and I’d say until Patchouli he was the most popular comic character that came out of the site.

LEBLEU: As a writer and a comic, who are your influences?

LYNCH: Jim Henson has been my hero since before I could speak. His characters, his show, his movies, the fact that same man is responsible for both The Muppets and The Dark Crystal says a lot, to call him a genius is a huge understatement. I sold a Muppet script to Henson and got to work with all the great people there, and that was a huge honor.

Berkeley Breathed also really inspires me. The world he created with Bloom County, Outland and now Opus directly inspires Angry Naked Pat and Monkey Man.

Matt Groening will always be a hero. Like Henson and Breathed, he gave us this giant universe of great characters.

As for what helped mold what I find funny, spending my youth listening to Howard Stern every morning and watching David Letterman every night certainly had an impact.

LEBLEU: Satire and parody are dominant in your work. How does a company like Marvel react when they see some of your previous work involving their properties, like the strip you did on the September 11 anniversary or Monkey Man visit Marvel?

LYNCH: I gotta say, I get really nice emails from comic creators that love the strip, which is really nice. Brian Michael Bendis liked our parody of him so much he put the strip in an issue of Powers. And even before I got a chance to work with them, Marvel sent some really complimentary emails about the strips. I think they realize that if I’m writing a strip that parodies their work in-depth, I must like it enough to know a lot about it, so they’re flattered.

At least, I hope so.

Hey, that would explain the, “you asshole, you didn’t tell us you were the guy who did that blue monkey strip that mocked us? Hope you enjoyed Slyde because that’s the only project you’re doing with us” message on my machine. Now it makes sense. Heh, the cryptic message finally explained!

LEBLEU: Now that your first mainstream work has been published and it’s about one of Marvel’s flagship characters, it will be analyzed, criticized and talked about in many of the more fervent message boards on the Internet. Are you braced for this kind of response and how important is this feedback is for you?

LYNCH: I am, yeah. There is nothing worse than putting out something you’re really proud of, and no one responds to it. So, good or bad, if they’re talking about it, I’m happy.

That said, I’d prefer they say good things about it. Thankfully, the Slyde story was well received on Spider-Man and comic book web boards. There was one negative review, but word on the street is that the reviewer in question is a jerk - The street, of course, being my street.

LEBLEU: Monkey Man is published every Monday at moviepoopshoot.com, why did you choose this format to promote your work?

LYNCH: When Kevin said he wanted to turn Movie Poopshoot into a real entertainment site, the man in charge, Chris Ryall, asked me if I wanted to contribute to it. A weekly strip sounded like something cool to do for a couple of months, and I had a comic book called Monkey Man Unleashed coming out with DJ Coffman, so we figured a weekly comic strip would be a great way to introduce the characters to readers and drum up interest in the book.

I was a little worried about Monkey Man’s monosyllabic tendencies, whether or not it was wise to have a lead who sounds like the love child of Captain Caveman and the Transformers’ Grimlock, but something clicked and I really love writing it. I’m proud of the run, and I think the fact that I wrote a comic that, in one week, referenced the 9/11 tragedy, The Star Wars Kid Internet Superstar and Doctor Doom is pretty cool.

LEBLEU: Approximately what would you say is the weekly traffic for a Monkey Man strip?

LYNCH: As for weekly traffic, I think last we checked, exactly six billion read it every week. Actually, I have no idea. In the beginning I worried about it, emailing Ryall, asking if we dropped each week, but now I just relax and enjoy it. I can always tell when we hit on something that really clicks with people. I think the introduction of Variant - Monkey Man’s arch enemy, same as Monkey Man, only with different paint ops and an exclusive accessory - garnered the most emails, followed by the introduction of 90’s Dinosaur, a dinosaur prone to wearing flannels and talking about Pearl Jam.

LEBLEU: How do you envision the state of the online/web comic in the next two to five years?

LYNCH: I don’t know. I’ve read a lot about people saying, “we need gimmick x to get people to appreciate webcomics,” but it’s really easily broken down. No gimmicks are necessary…you want to make a webcomic? Step one is making sure your web comic is well written and saying something funny or new, step two is making sure your web comic is drawn well and looks interesting. People will pass on links to something they like, and word will grow.

The best example I can give of this is my friend Andy Milonakis. He would do bizarre, hilarious short films for angrynakedpat.com. The main audience for them at first was people who would come to the site to look at my comics or cartoons or whatever. But then he filmed an ad-libbed song called “The Superbowl is Gay” that got passed all around the internet - every site in the world linked it, talked about it - which lead to Andy being on a crapload of radio stations talking about the song, singing it, talking about the site, etc. That led to Jimmy Kimmel playing it on his talk show, which lead to Kimmel having Andy on, which lead to Andy getting a regular job on his show. Andy has since moved to LA and is getting all sorts of offers. All from a site that a few people went to. He did something solid, word got out. No gimmicks, no schemes, he put out something that people responded to and he got himself an audience of millions.

Of course, it would be difficult to have the same level of success from a webcomic. I don’t think Jessica and I are going to be hand in hand on Jimmy Kimmel as a result of Patchouli, but a great word of mouth has spread because people respond to that strip. It started small, as the story progressed, more people jumped on, read the back strips, checked every day, bought the collections we made available on the site, and when the first original Patchouli comic came out in stores, the orders were abnormally high for an independent black and white comic that didn’t feature any superheroes. We’re still getting re-orders for it, months later.

With apologies to Opus and Boondocks and Get Fuzzy, which are absolutely great, the majority of the funniest strips today aren’t in newspapers, they’re on the web. From the stuff on sinfest.net to the five strips at moviepoopshoot.com to Scott McCloud’s site, there is so much out there that are helping webcomics gain respect. Hopefully within five years they’ll be even more appreciated. I don’t think webcomics will ever replace printed comics, only because, speaking as a creator and a fan, it’s so much more fun to hold a comic in your hand and read it. I’m at my computer working all day, when I want to relax and read a comic, the last thing I want to do is sit at the computer even more.

LEBLEU: What kind of liberties do you allow the artists that you are working with take with your characters and plots?

LYNCH: I totally trust them. I talk to them about what I want to do in-depth, so when I send them the final script, I trust they’re gonna deliver. Once the strips are penciled, if anything is changed from what I envisioned, the only time I ask for it to be altered is if a character’s look is off - for instance, if someone forgets Monkey Boy’s special shoe - or if the joke doesn’t work because the facial expressions or the shot angle or something takes away from the humor.

Hell, even dating back to the early, early Angry Naked Pat strips, when Josh Dobbin started coloring ones based on black and white strips I did in college, he made Nigel 7 - a dorky little guy with an ass for a head - green, when for years I pictured him as a fat little white kid in bad Star Trek makeup. The look was so interesting that suddenly Nigel 7 was an alien. Thanks to Josh, Nigel 7’s whole origin has changed, and he’s proven to be a really popular character in everything we do.

Each artist I’ve worked with has surprised me in such spectacular ways. When DJ was drawing Monkey Man Unleashed, it called for a one panel shot of Ape Dude, a Monkey Man rip-off. DJ’s picture of him was so funny I kept bringing Ape Dude back, and eventually he got a one shot special, which is probably the funniest comic we’ve released to date.

Jon Sukarangsan, Monkey Man’s artist for the last year or so, constantly surprises me with his work. In his very first Monkey Man, which you can find here, he drew a hot blonde girl who was supposed to be part of a throwaway joke, but the girl had such character that whenever the script calls for a random civilian, we just make it the hot blonde girl in a bikini. She’s appeared a bunch of times. I drew really rough designs for two of the newer characters, Jersey Devil and Shaolin Munk, and Jon’s interpretation was so brilliant that when I looked at his versions and then mine, my sketches seemed more like cave drawings - by a retarded blind caveman. Every week Jon comes up with stuff that I’d never think of, it’s only a matter of time before someone at Marvel or DC or Top Shelf notices and snatches him up.

LEBLEU: Since Patchouli is set in the real world reflecting daily life, how does your own personal life and experiences influence the writing process on this work?

LYNCH: Oh, there is so much in all three Patchouli books that is taken from my and Jessica’s lives. The Patchouli/Norm relationship is definitely inspired by relationships past, the whole “super cool art crowd” can be found in just about any town, but the epicenter of snooty hipsters is Red Bank, New Jersey, which Jessica and I experience firsthand.

I think, if you’re going to write and draw stories that take place in the real world and deal with relationships, your experiences will always creep in, even if you don’t mean for it to. I think that’s why people click with the series. Beyond the pop culture references and goofy talking rabbits and theme parks dedicated to Independent movies, are a handful of characters that readers click with on some level.

LEBLEU: Which character, if any, from Patchouli is the closest to you?

LYNCH: I want to say Graham Liam, because all the chicks dig him, but I’d have to go with Norm. He’s a dorky guy that used his sense of humor to win over a lady way, way out of his league, which I totally did. One difference is he also didn’t use an envelope full of money to seal the deal.

But seriously, a hey-hey, and this is going to sound odd, I think to some degree Patchouli’s personality is taken from mine, in that she makes fun of people to hide her insecurities, fatty.

LEBLEU: In some ways does Patchouli represent your vision of the ideal woman?

LYNCH: No, but it’s drawn by my vision of the ideal woman.

(Wait for Jessica to leave…wait…wait…)

In some ways, sure. I think Patchouli’s a very pretty cartoon character, and if she were real, I guess, I mean I like sarcastic girls, and boobs, and…

…okay, this question is weird and it’s effect on me is creeping me out. One thing, though, it’s very odd how many people prefer Shel, Patchouli’s friend. She was supposed to be the poseur, awkward best friend of the hot girl, but a bunch of people that post on the angrynakedpat.com board or email or, sure, hang out with me, tell me how hot Shel is. And that’s nice and scary. I disagree, I think Patchouli is prettier. I also think Graham Liam is prettier than both girls.

LEBLEU: Can you tell us more about what’s coming up for you in the future?

LYNCH: Jon and I are going to keep bringing Monkey Man to moviepoopshoot.com. When MM reaches it’s 100th strip, which is about three or four months from now, we’re going to take a break from it, try out another strip for the summer.

During the break, Monkey Man 2-D is coming out. It’s a full color one shot written by me and drawn by Joey Mason of Gun-Fu fame. Monkey Man 2-D involves Monkey Man finding out that the lab where he was experimented on/created is back open and up to it’s evil ways, so he and Monkey Boy go back to New Delhi and house shit. Variant figures prominently into it as well. It’s really fun and goofy. My goal was to have a joke every panel. It’s written with new readers in mind, so even if you don’t know one thing about Monkey Man, you’ll enjoy it.

Joey is amazing, the pages I’ve seen so far are so damn detailed and beautiful. Every panel looks like a cell from some unreleased animated Monkey Man show.

Speaking of animated shows - dig that segue, yo - I’ve written a pilot for a weekly Patchouli cartoon series. It’ll be making the rounds to TV stations soon - I’m just tweaking it a bit. I love how it came out, the first episode is called “Norm Sucks” and deals with Patchouli and Shel’s world coming crashing down when Norm gets hired at her CD store and starts making them look bad. So we take the Patchouli story back a bit, and see how everyone met.

I also wrote another pilot, this one live action, for a half hour comedy series with some sci-fi overtones, that is garnering great responses from people, so I think that’ll go forward before Patchouli. The script just kinda poured out of me, and while I can’t say what it’s about just yet for fear of jinxing it, I can say that if it got picked up, I could easily see myself writing it for years and years, barring any kind of cocaine habit.

On the film front, a few years ago I wrote a script that I love. I have this weird ritual in that once I finish writing a screenplay, I print it out and read it, and try to imagine watching it on a movie screen, pretending that I had nothing to do with it. I think about what stuff I’d like, what I’d make fun of with my friends, etc. When I read this, I thought if I saw this movie and had nothing to do with it, it would be my favorite movie ever made. It’s the kind of movie I’d make my friends watch.

So I sent it to my friends and my managers and agents, and some of them said, “maybe it’s too close to what you like, because we don’t quite understand it”, which made me feel terrible and I shelved it. It basically felt like I was going to the prom wearing a dress I made and my best friends telling me I looked fat in it.

But sometime last year, I started talking to some people at Jim Henson Productions - we hadn’t talked for a year or so, after my Next Muppet Movie script got pushed back - but it was really fun just catching up with them, talking about what’s going on with the Muppets, etc. I told them about this script I wrote, asked if they wanted to read it as it was up Henson’s alley, the kind of script I knew they’d like. I didn’t think anything would come of it other than, “that was funny, thanks for letting us read it,” but they got all psyched and asked if they could exec produce it and shop it to studios, which is a dream come true. It’s currently going out to studios, but even if none of them bite, the fact that Jim Henson Productions loved a script I felt so close to is good enough. It would be even, um, more gooder, if a studio felt the same way and made it. We’ll see.

Also, a movie I wrote and directed called Big Helium Dog is coming to DVD fairly soon, as well. We just shot a bunch of extras for it, it’ll be jam packed with, as the French say, “bitchin’ comedy”.

LEBLEU: If you could write a movie script for any comic book properties what would they be and why?

LYNCH: Hmmmmmmmmmm…The manga series Love Hina. Also, a Ble Beetle/Booster Gold buddy superhero movie. An Aquaman comedy starring Owen Wilson. Captain America starring Brendan Fraser. And even if it ain’t me, someone should adapt the original Longshot mini-series by Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams.

But, above all else, a live action Patchouli.

	Sylvain Lebleu is a recent addition to the stable of SBC writers hailing from the icy wastes of Canada. When not interviewing comic book creators or writing the What Looks Good complement for the site, he operates in his secret identity as a mild mannered computer programmer.