Revisiting Radiator Springs
In which I renew my acquaintance with anthropomorphic automotive archetypes and ponder their enduring appeal. - Plus a few updates from the week just gone.
Last weekend we introduced our youngest grand-daughter to the residents of Radiator Springs. Watching the 2006 Disney-Pixar CARS movie has become something of a right of passage in our family.
When the movie was initially released I really enjoyed it as both a car-guy, motor-sports nut, and as a storyteller. I was lucky enough a few years later to get the chance to write the CARS comic book series for BOOM Studios when they had the license. Over the course of two years I wrote 16 issues, which were collected in four trade paperback editions.
Living with those characters in my head over an extended period not only taught me a lot about them as storytelling archetypes, but it also opened my eyes to what they meant to a wide range of people. Perhaps the highlight of my writing career to date was doing a signing at a comics convention when a lady came up to me in tears and wanted to give me a big hug telling me that it was my CARS comics that had prompted her disabled son to want to learn to read as he wanted to find out what happened next for himself. But I knew it wasn’t me or my stories, it was those characters and their stories about realizing your true potential, understanding the power of friendship, and having the realization that we all need help to achieve our dreams.
The more you watch this movie you also understand that it also addresses things like environmental concerns, the death of small-town culture, media bias, the fleeting nature of fame, and much more. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen this movie, but even now I usually take away some new insight on each viewing.
In the almost decade since I worked with a great team at BOOM and Disney to tell those stories Lightning McQueen has stayed a constant in our house. While I was working on the comics I picked up a few Lightning McQueen die-casts, and friends would also occasionally gift me other examples. Well that has now grown to a collection of around 90 Lightnings that range from a tiny one the size of my pinkie finger-nail from a Japanese vending machine to a foot-long example.
I also still get messages from CARS fans around the world, just a few weeks ago I was tagged in a Twitter post from a fan in Italy who had got the Italian translations of two of the CARS comics collections for Christmas. This ended up in a fun conversation about some of my story points and decisions. Really had to blow the mental cob-webs off for that. But it's another indication to me just how much this movie and franchise continues to resonate with people of all ages, nationalities, and beliefs.
If you think CARS is just a kids movie about cute automobiles - think again. Go rewatch it.
Ka-Chow!
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
This week we got confirmation of a visit to the Aerospace Bristol archives, along with a guided tour of the Brabazon Hanger (which is now used as a concert venue), during a visit to the UK in early March. Both will be a great help in the research stage for the “Brabazon: Lost Airliner of the Skies” book.
Pages and Screens
Books
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr - Simply put, this is one of the most brilliantly written and intricately plotted novels I’ve ever read. An absolute masterpiece in storytelling. I’ve never ploughed through a 600 page work of fiction so quickly. I felt a pang each time I had to step away from its pages to go do something else.
Movies
Flawless - A heist movie set in the 1960s with Michael Caine that includes some cool jazz tracks? Count me in. The central plot has some smart ideas and neat twists plus a great sense of place and time, and excellent attention to period detail; but it isn’t as flawless as the title promises as it left a few too many questions unanswered and the modern day framing device felt clumsy and tacked on as if the producers didn’t feel they could open on a 1960s setting.
Podcasts Procrastinations
Fun time earlier in the week recording and editing interviews with a couple of folks who attended the Sounds of 007 concert at the Albert Hall back in October for an upcoming On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast network Bond Music episode.
The Before They Were Beatles podcast surpassed the 30,000 downloads mark this week with the release of the first episode of Season 3 in which our story reaches the start of 1962 and the first record company auditions.
Word Slinging
This week as well as working on the Brabazon book, I also spent an evening galley proofing essay for the upcoming anthology The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Crown Prince of Crime. In which I explain why I’m Fed Up With The Joker. - coming this spring from Crazy 8 Press. I always enjoy getting the red pen out and doing a galley proof. Seeing my work all formatted and laid out ready to go to print makes me feel like an actual writer.
Weekly Web Round Up
A few things got updated on our various websites this week.
At the Batman On The Cover project over on Tumblr we reach September 1967 with Detective Comics #367
Just added to the 007 Articles Archive on the James Bond Lexicon website - "James Bond: The Numbers Game."
Over on The Content Pool blog we posted a new article on ‘AI’s Missing Ingredient - Intelligent Content” that seems to already be getting some notice.
Well that’s about it for this week’s RAMBLE - see you next time.
Cheers
Alan J. Porter