An interview with Devin Grayson
A Shameless web exclusive
By Shane Dingman
Continued from page 6
So let’s look at examples of outlines.
Initially, I was going to be a 12-issue series, so here’s an example of part of an early outline (italics added for clarification, this would not normally be in script):
#1. GRAIL OF STEEL part one: “Fate & Other Accidents”
FIRST OF THREE-PART HOUSTON ARC. DOUBLE-SIZED ISSUE.
JOEL is fifteen when he sees his parents’ car crushed between two others on a local televised broadcast of the lethal highway pile-up. If Joel has felt vaguely disassociated from his adolescent, middle-class life up to this point, reality is now threatening to bear down too hard. To his little sister, AVIVA’s, surprise, Joel forgoes making funeral arrangements in favor of loading up his dad’s Winnebago with his comic collection and announcing that he’s heading to Metropolis to collect his inheritance from their maternal grandfather and, more importantly, to find Superman and aid him in his fight against crime.
By the time Joel is out on the road he has picked up four additional traveling companions. The first is of course his little sister, who has no choice but to follow her big brother. Aviva in turn insists that they be accompanied by her baby-sitter, DAMARA Sinclaire, a charismatic sixteen-year-old. Furious with, but unable to detach herself from, her codependent single mother, Damara is all too happy to use the excuse of watching over the poor, newly orphaned eleven-year-old Aviva as an excuse to get away for a little while and clear her head.
She also has her own, secret reason for wanting to meet with Superman and inadvertently inspires a wild fantasy in young Aviva: if this guy is the god Dami and Joel have all their hopes pinned on, then it’s only logical that the Man of Steel will be able to grant Aviva’s dearest wish too. The eleven-year-old settles contentedly into the back of the RV with misguided calm, dreaming of the moment when Superman will resurrect her dead parents.
Also joining the exodus is African-American Oakland resident and fellow comic shop enthusiast, TYSON Gilford, whose name is highlighted on Joel’s METAlist (a hacked roster of hospital-identified Meta-gene carriers cross-referenced with his regional telephone directory), and Tyson’s best friend, CAMERON Begay. With Tyson’s help, the group locates Cameron at the scene of a recently blown up genetics lab. Cam has just survived an attack from a group of super-powered teens, Counter Strike, who are after a lab book in his possession (the ensuing battle inadvertently the cause of the lab to explode), and has now been instructed by his mentor and uncle, Dr. Randall Begay, to deliver the lab book into the hands of Dr. Sarah Charles at STAR labs, N.Y.
Together, the teenagers are eventually able to thwart another attack from Counter Strike, collectively using their own unexplored powers to escape onto the open road, temporarily leaving the police, the CPS, several concerned adults, and most of their collected common sense behind them.
#2. GRAIL OF STEEL part two: “Metropolis or bust.”
SECOND OF THREE PART HOUSTON ARC.
The group makes a pit stop in Opal City to replenish supplies and argue over fast food restaurants, super-hero monikers, costume designs (which they’ll need Joel’s money to prepare), and directions (“So how much further now?”-“Well, Mr. Goodwin at that last gas station said Metropolis is hundreds of miles East of here.”-“Yeah, but this Carlin Map makes it look like we’re already almost there,” ) Sub-textually, the anxiety over being “lost” runs far deeper than the geography. Joel tries unsuccessfully to contact his grandfather by phone while Tyson struggles with an overwhelming attraction to Damara (who seems to be interested in Cam), and back in Berkeley, the CPS begin an active search for the Weinberg children.
The Winnebago has barely pulled out onto the open road again when Counter Strike reappear to make another play for Dr. Begay’s lab book. The battle that breaks out is worse than disorganized; it’s chaos. Despite their first battle in Livermore, none of the Weinys know anything about one another’s powers, and some of them hardly even seem to know their own. It’s not until Joel starts barking out orders, and the motley group decides to follow them, that the Weinberg’s are able to push back the well-organized Counter Strike. The book ends with the Weinys shaken and anxious about the realities of heroing, wondering for the first time what they’ve really gotten themselves into.
#3. GRAIL OF STEEL part three: “Questions for God”
THIRD OF THREE PART HOUSTON ARC.
Arriving in Metropolis, Joel finally manages to contact Grandpa Nathan, but hangs up in a panic upon hearing that the CPS is already waiting for the Weinbergs at Nathan’s house. Frightened of the possibility of juvenile detention, the team sets off in one last frantic search for Supes — but to no avail. The big S is much harder to locate than they had anticipated. Tired, arguing amongst themselves, and sensing defeat, they begin to discuss turning themselves in.
Gallantly, Joel insists he’ll take the rap for all of them. It’s the first time he’s really thought of them as a team, and his sacrificial gesture fills him with an unfamiliar sense of self-worth.
Arriving at Grandpa Nathan’s with a sense of defeat, all of the Weinys are surprised when the old man winks at his grandson and suddenly turns to the splenetic Ms. Michaels with an innocent, “Say, what if I took them in?” Unhappy with this suggestion, Ms.Michaels can nonetheless think of no legal precedent barring it. The minute the door slams shut on the CPS, Nathan slaps a blanket, cape-like, over his shoulders, rubs his hands together, and gleefully chortles, “Okay kids, let’s get busy!”
Grandpa Nathan’s first order of business is to get the team into costumes. Embarrassed, confused, and even somewhat disappointed, Joel sulkily refuses to participate as the other Weinys get outfitted and excitedly assess their goals. Deciding that they’re more powerful together than individually (not to mention that Tyson is still hung up on Damara, who is still hung up on Cam) the group-sans-leader set about conducting their own research on the notebook. Their detective works calls their attention to something called “Project Cipher,” and ends up placing them in the custody of the CBI. It’s up to Joel to save his friends, leading them through a final battle with multiple CBI agents that ends with his own, personal commitment to be part of a collective future; a team. He even, as a token of Grandpa Nathan’s approval, gets his own costume.
Subplot: Although the team as a whole is unable to locate Supes, Aviva and Grandpa Nathan happen upon him as he heroically catches a malfunctioning subway before it runs off track. After racing to him determined to beg for the lives of her parents, Aviva finds herself so overwhelmed by Superman’s actual presence that the request she finally stammers out is, “Can I have your autograph?” Although the noble Kryptonian grants it, Aviva’s excitement is tainted deflates into an almost catatonic shadow of depression and anxiety, convinced both that she is now responsible for the absence of her parents, and that Joel is going to be furiously disappointed in her.
Transition: About to head out, while trying to make room for Grandpa Nathan (who refuses to give them any money unless he can go along) in the already cramped Winnebago, the team is startled by the dramatically flashy appearance of a young god calling himself “Eryx,” whom Damara apparently knows all too well. He calmly tells the Weinys he has no intention of hurting them...providing they turn his fiancé, Damara, over to him.
As those of you who read the story know, this is different than what finally happened, at least in terms of pacing — when the book was cut from 12 to six issues, I was wildly glad I had such a detailed outline. It was hugely helpful in condensing the story.
