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About 12 years ago (2004 I think), after watching the film “Trainspotting”, I came up with the idea of a drug addict super hero for a writing contest. A good freind saw the idea and gave me the trade paperback for “Batman: Venom”, where Bat’s becomes addicted to Bane’s drug (still one of the best Batman stories in my opinion) and I was sold that this was a good idea.

I lost the contest, but a few years later in 2009 I revisited the idea; took an old superhero I’d made when I was about 10 and re-imagined a meth addict who suddenly gained super powers but only had them while hopped up on the drug. I wanted to focus on addiction, so anything he did as a “superhero” was either staged or the result of an accident and the villain in the story was the drug itself. The idea that the character thought of himself as a hero was a delusion and the whole thing a metaphor for addiction.

I wanted to introduce a despicable character that I could take on a comedically tragic journey and have the audience root for in the end.

What I ended up with was “Tweaker”, a black comedy inspired by the art of Bill Sienkiewicz (which is what I saw in my head), the films “Trainspotting”, “Breaking Bad”, “Spun”, and Mark Millar’s comic “Kick Ass”, and in 2009 and 2010 I thought the project had some teeth.

But- I couldn’t find any artist who wanted to draw it! I was willing to pay them their page rates, but they’d read the script and say “…this is just too over the top dude.”

And it is over the top.

When I started working at Madefire in 2012, the great and powerful Liam Sharp really liked the idea and gave me tons of encouragement, even taking time to draw the main character and design his costume (still one of the best and most fun days of my life- thanks Liam!) and completely NAILING the look and feel!

The characters are loosely based on drug dealing meth addicts I worked with in Oakland and Sacramento back in the 1980’s.

It’s been pitched to many a publisher and artist- but got absolutely nowhere.

Yesterday I just found out that that Vertigo launched a title in November of 2015 called “Jacked” about, you guessed it, a drug addict superhero that only has powers while on drugs.

I can’t wait to read it- I’m sure it will be super high quality as it’s by Eric Kripke who created the “Supernatural” television series. I’m sure it will be on Netflix or in movie theaters at some point.

It does however signal that it’s time to put “Tweaker” into the rubbish bin. I may salvage bits and pieces of it for other projects, as auto wreckers strip cars before they go in to the crusher, but it does sadden me a little that the adventures of Donny and Marie will never see the light of day.

So, I present to anyone who has a ton of time on their hands or is finding this post on their phone whilst sitting on the shitter and has nothing better to do- the pitch to “Tweaker” including the script for the first book.

If nothing else, it’s an example of how I put together pitches for properties. A Viking funeral for an idea that was never meant to be.

Fare thee well Tweaker…fare thee well…

Cheers!

Description

About 12 years ago (2004 I think), after watching the film “Trainspotting”, I came up with the idea of a drug addict super hero for a writing contest. A good freind saw the idea and gave me the trade paperback for “Batman: Venom”, where Bat’s becomes addicted to Bane’s drug (still one of the best Batman stories in my opinion) and I was sold that this was a good idea.

I lost the contest, but a few years later in 2009 I revisited the idea; took an old superhero I’d made when I was about 10 and re-imagined a meth addict who suddenly gained super powers but only had them while hopped up on the drug. I wanted to focus on addiction, so anything he did as a “superhero” was either staged or the result of an accident and the villain in the story was the drug itself. The idea that the character thought of himself as a hero was a delusion and the whole thing a metaphor for addiction.

I wanted to introduce a despicable character that I could take on a comedically tragic journey and have the audience root for in the end.

What I ended up with was “Tweaker”, a black comedy inspired by the art of Bill Sienkiewicz (which is what I saw in my head), the films “Trainspotting”, “Breaking Bad”, “Spun”, and Mark Millar’s comic “Kick Ass”, and in 2009 and 2010 I thought the project had some teeth.

But- I couldn’t find any artist who wanted to draw it! I was willing to pay them their page rates, but they’d read the script and say “…this is just too over the top dude.”

And it is over the top.

When I started working at Madefire in 2012, the great and powerful Liam Sharp really liked the idea and gave me tons of encouragement, even taking time to draw the main character and design his costume (still one of the best and most fun days of my life- thanks Liam!) and completely NAILING the look and feel!

The characters are loosely based on drug dealing meth addicts I worked with in Oakland and Sacramento back in the 1980’s.

It’s been pitched to many a publisher and artist- but got absolutely nowhere.

Yesterday I just found out that that Vertigo launched a title in November of 2015 called “Jacked” about, you guessed it, a drug addict superhero that only has powers while on drugs.

I can’t wait to read it- I’m sure it will be super high quality as it’s by Eric Kripke who created the “Supernatural” television series. I’m sure it will be on Netflix or in movie theaters at some point.

It does however signal that it’s time to put “Tweaker” into the rubbish bin. I may salvage bits and pieces of it for other projects, as auto wreckers strip cars before they go in to the crusher, but it does sadden me a little that the adventures of Donny and Marie will never see the light of day.

So, I present to anyone who has a ton of time on their hands or is finding this post on their phone whilst sitting on the shitter and has nothing better to do- the pitch to “Tweaker” including the script for the first book.

If nothing else, it’s an example of how I put together pitches for properties. A Viking funeral for an idea that was never meant to be.

Fare thee well Tweaker…fare thee well…

Cheers!