Unsold episode ideas that became books

[JonnyQuest037]

In comics, DC & Marvel introducing Swamp Thing & Man-Thing within a month or two of each other.

Well, this one's a little more questionable. Conway and Wein were actually roommates at the time, and there might've been some actual overlap as a result, that might not be a "pulled similar ideas out of the ether purely out of nowhere" thing. Not that either necessarily outright copied the other, but they might've tossed ideas back and forth and one hooked on something similar to what the other was doing without realizing it.

Well, yes they were roommates at the time, but both Conway and Wein have said that they didn't really talk about their stories with each other.

I just pulled out my copy of Jon B. Cooke's Swampmen (which is really spectacular, and anybody with a passing interest in Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, or swamp monsters in general should buy it), and here's what Wein has to say about conceiving the first, one-shot Swamp Thing story:

(p. 76) Well, I wish I had a better story, but it's as simple as this: I was on the subway on my way into the DC office and I needed something to pitch to Joe.* I didn't have any ideas that came to me in the subway out of the blue. I honestly don't know where it came from.

*Joe Orlando, editor of House of Secrets.​

I've interviewed both Wein and Conway in the last couple of years, and I can tell you that they're both pretty straightforward guys who, if they'd inspired each other's stories, would be upfront about it.

Interestingly, Wein was the guy who ended up adding the thing that really differentiated the two characters: The concept of "Whoever knows fear, burns at the Man-Thing's touch." In the first Man-Thing story by Conway, anyone that the Man-Thing touched burned. Wein scripted the second Man-Thing story, and realized that a protagonist who could never touch anybody would quickly become very limiting.

So basically, this is my long-winded way of saying that even though the two of them were living together at the time, any similarities between Swamp Thing and Man-Thing were still just a coincidence.

Sorry for the digression.

 

[Stevil2001]

I was reading an issue of Back Issue the other day, and found another example of the reused episode idea I hadn't known about. Issue #12 of the original Marvel Star Trek comic was recycled from a pitch by Alan Brennert for the aborted Star Trek Phase II, though he had to replace the pitch's Medusans with a new race, the Phaetons, because Marvel only had the rights to elements of Star Trek appearing in The Motion Picture itself. Brennert would go on to be (under the name Michael Bryant) a member of the writing staff during Enterprise's fourth season.

From issue #84:

BRENNERT: A few years later I broke into television writing, and one of my earliest pitch meetings was at Star Trek Phase II, an abortive attempt to relaunch Star Trek as a weekly syndicated series.
KELLY: Right.
BRENNERT: I came close to selling them a story I called “Eclipse of Reason”—involving the Medusans from the original series episode “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”—when the whole project fell apart and morphed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But I still had this story outline, and around 1980 or ’81, Marty [Pasko] was working on Marvel’s Star Trek comic and needed a plot for his next issue, so I was able to return the favor. [Pasko had helped Brennert out when he was a struggling writer.] I said, “Hey, I’ve got this. What do you think?” And he liked it and used it.
KELLY: Now it makes sense!
BRENNERT: And that’s how we wound up collaborating. (We also collaborated on a Fantasy Island episode a couple of years later, but that’s another story.)
KELLY: I always wondered how you ended up doing [Marvel’s] Star Trek #12 (Mar. 1981). It just seemed random… why that issue of Star Trek?
BRENNERT: And it’s been reprinted in a really shoddy trade paperback recently, too.
KELLY: Really? Oh, geez.
BRENNERT: Yes. IDW came out with a reprint of all the Marvel Star Treks, and none of us who wrote or drew those issues got any payment for it. And to add insult to injury, Marvel’s plates most have been, like, horribly deteriorated, because it was the worst reproduction that you’ve ever seen in a comic-book trade paperback.
KELLY: It’s a good story. I reread it not that long ago and it reads like a classic episode of Star Trek. I definitely feel like I could have watched that in 1968 with all the actors. It has that feel to it.
BRENNERT: Thanks. I thought Marty’s script was very good. He did have to change the Medusans to “Phaetonians” because Paramount hadn’t licensed Marvel to use any of the alien races from the original series (a silly restriction, and one that DC did away with when they licensed the title).
KELLY: Well, that’s good.

I'm too lazy to add this to Memory Alpha.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I was reading an issue of Back Issue the other day, and found another example of the reused episode idea I hadn't known about.

I'm one of the freelance writers for BACK ISSUE (although I don't have anything in issue #84), and that Alan Brennert interview was conducted by my friend Rob Kelly for The Fire and Water Podcast.

 

[Stevil2001]

I was reading an issue of Back Issue the other day, and found another example of the reused episode idea I hadn't known about.

I'm one of the freelance writers for BACK ISSUE (although I don't have anything in issue #84), and that Alan Brennert interview was conducted by my friend Rob Kelly for The Fire and Water Podcast.

What name do you write under, if you don't mind? I've been reading since issue #80, and I really dig the magazine for the most part.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm one of the freelance writers for BACK ISSUE (although I don't have anything in issue #84), and that Alan Brennert interview was conducted by my friend Rob Kelly for The Fire and Water Podcast.

What name do you write under, if you don't mind? I've been reading since issue #80, and I really dig the magazine for the most part.

My real name, John Trumbull. I wrote about Larry Niven and John Byrne's Green Lantern special "Ganthet's Tale" in #80, DC's special edition reprints in #81, and DC's post-Crisis crossovers in #82. I also have articles coming up in #s 86 (Marvel's deluxe reprints), 87 (JLA #200), 91 (which I'm writing right now), and 99.

Previously, I had articles in #s 64, 69, 71, 73, and 76.

I'm also the admin (along with editor Michael Eury) on the BI Facebook group. You're welcome to join us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/137494714050/