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The History of 'Tales from the Crypt' and EC Comics Horror Part III

The conclusion of the history of 'Tales of the Crypt' and EC Comics Horror.

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The History of 'Tales from the Crypt' and EC Comics Horror Part III

Johnny Craig

[caption id="attachment_119251" align="alignleft" width="281"] Johnny Craig.[/caption] As with any successful enterprise, you need a talented team to carry out the vision of the company.  The artists and professionals at EC Comics became the who’s who of the industry – all of whom shared a driving passion for the comic form.  There was Jonathan Monroe Craig, known to his friends and colleagues as Johnny, who joined EC Comics back when it was under the control of Max in 1947.  After Max’s death, Craig went from doing lettering and correcting artwork in the art department to becoming a regular artist for the company.  Starting with the western and crime titles, Craig made his mark on the industry with his artwork for The Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, and Tales from the Crypt. Sporting a clean and uncluttered style, Craig’s artwork took root in the reader’s imagination.  His compositions showed just enough of the macabre to suggest crucial story elements while leaving out elements of explicit violence.  Focusing on anticipation and dread rather than explicitness and gore, Craig’s name quickly became a mainstay within the industry.  A well-versed comic book reader could easily identify a Johnny Craig piece simply by observing the style of the piece.  Famed comic book writer, Wally Wood, once said of Craig that he drew “the cleanest horror stories you ever saw.”  It was Craig’s cover of the woman with the severed head that was the topic of debate at the 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. [caption id="attachment_119252" align="alignright" width="300"] Jack Davis.[/caption] During his career with EC Comics, Craig drew the covers of twenty-nine issues and many more stories.  Known for being a slow and deliberate artist with a meticulous style, it would typically take Craig about a month to finish a story, whereas other EC artists finished within a week.  Unlike the other artists at EC Comics, Craig was also a writer.  He routinely scripted stories for The Vault of Horror as well as Crime SuspenStories.  In early 1954, Craig became the editor of The Vault of Horror and went on to create the character of Drusilla, a pin-up style goth companion for the Vault Keeper.

Jack Davis

Another key figure in the story of the EC Comics’ horror line was John Burton Davis, Jr., known by Jack, who had been drawing comics since the age of 12, when his cartoon artwork was published in Tip Top Comics No. 9 (December 1936).  At age 25, Davis illustrated a training manual for the Coca-Cola company, which gave him the means to buy a car and head to New York.  There, he attended the Art Students League of New York.  To his consternation, all the comic book publishers rejected his work except for one.  Gaines saw potential in Davis’ work and immediately gave him assignments.  Davis recounted this moment in a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal: “Every time you went in to see Bill Gaines, he would write you a check when you brought in a story. You didn't have to put in a bill or anything. I was very, very hungry and I was thinking about getting married. So I kept the road pretty hot between home and Canal Street. I would go in for that almighty check, go home and do the work, bring it in and get another check and pick up another story.” If it was the need for a paycheck that brought Davis into the front doors of 225 Lafayette Street, it was his talent that kept him there.  Davis’ distinct style, which was Expressionistic in the way he elongated his figures and exaggerated their proportions, became a mainstay of the EC Comics’ horror line.  He is noted for his work on Tales from the Crypt where he updated the appearance of the Crypt Keeper by adding hairy warts on his face and a salivating mouth and exaggerating the size of his hands and feet.  He illustrated the cover for every issue of Tales from the Crypt from #29 to #46. Where Craig was slow and deliberate in his art style, Davis was fast – churning out as many as three pages per day.  The prospect of reverting to starving artist mode provided its own set of motivations.  “I’d have to be fast,” recalled Davis, “because when you turned them in, that’s when you’d get your money.  The faster you drew, the faster the money came in.”  Other artists for the comics included Jack Kamen, Graham Ingels, George Roussos, Joe Orlando, Al Williamson, Fred Peters, George Evans, Bill Elder, Reed Crandall, and Bernie Krigstein.

Marie Severin

[caption id="attachment_119253" align="alignright" width="300"] Marie Severin.[/caption] Another key figure was a woman named Marie Severin.  Severin acted as the colorist for the comics.  She made a point to study the juxtaposition of colors to find which ones (there was a range of 48 colors from which she had to choose) worked best together.  Along with choosing and proofreading the colors, Severin would use coloring to subtly shield some of the more gruesome and explicit content in the stories.  Feldstein referred to her as the “conscience of EC.” “I would never assume an editorial position,” she said. “What I would do very often is, if somebody was being dismembered, I would rather color it in yellow because it's garish, and also [so] you could see what was going on. Or red, for the blood element, but not to subdue the artwork. ... I mean, the main reason these people were buying these books was to see somebody's head cut off, y'know? ... And [the editors] trusted me with a lot a stuff. They knew that I wouldn't subdue artwork; I would just kind of shield it a little bit so if a parent picked up the book in the drug store, they wouldn't see that somebody's stomach was all red.” Public frenzy over comic books.

The end of an era

[caption id="attachment_119254" align="alignright" width="207"] Public frenzy over comic books.[/caption] By 1954, the jig was up.  In April of that year, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published his book, Seduction of the Innocent: The Influence of Comic Books on Today’s Youth.  The book was a response to growing unease about the influence of the comic book industry on the minds of the youth of America.  In the book, Wertham cited pictorial representations of violence and sexuality in comic books stories as being responsible for the corruption of children, contributing specifically to juvenile delinquency and illiteracy.  Horror comics like the EC Comics titles were at the forefront of the controversy. In addition to asserting that Batman and Robin were actually gay partners and that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext as well as a lesbian slant, Wertham rejected the horror comics outright. Today, cultural critics could hardly be so sweeping in their generalizations nor so quick to their conclusions about the effects of comic books on young readers; you are more likely to encounter freedom of speech defenses and warnings against the censorship of such material rather than outright condemnation.  Times have changed.  In 1954, this debate was taken quite seriously by parents across the United States who were legitimately concerned for children’s welfare.

The Comics Code Authority

Mirroring the intent behind Hollywood’s 1930s Production Code and opting for self-regulation rather than government interference, the comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority.  New York Magistrate Charles F. Murphy, an acknowledged expert about juvenile delinquency, headed the organization.  As part of the restrictions set in place and enforced by the Comics Code, stories had to end with good triumphing over evil; depictions of “excessive violence” were prohibited as were “lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations”; depictions of sex or sexual subject matter, including seduction and sadism, were strictly prohibited; and the words “horror” or “terror” were forbidden in comic book titles. Production of Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear was halted nearly overnight.  In September 1954, Gaines and his team published their final issues of each of the three horror comics.  Prior to deciding to cease production, Gaines had been toying with the idea of reviving The Crypt of Terror title for a fourth horror comic book under the company's belt.  Because an issue of The Crypt of Terror had already been produced by the time of the hearing, it was published as the final issue of the Tales from the Crypt series.  That was in September of 1955.

The legacy of horror

[caption id="attachment_119255" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Crypt Keeper, HBO TV series.[/caption] Tales from the Crypt lives on.  From 1964 to 1966, Ballantine Books reprinted selected stories from the comic book in a series of paperback EC anthologies.  But, it was the 1972 British movie adaptation by director Freddie Francis that kept alive the legacy of the title.  In 1989, HBO adapted the stories in the various EC Comics titles for their iconic TV series, Tales from the Crypt.  The Tales from the Crypt title, over all the other horror titles of the time period, has since taken on a special significance in comic book history as being a perfect example of the short-lived genre that persisted in the early 1950s.  In that specific sense, Tales from the Crypt is a sort of cultural time capsule, a piece of nostalgia that conjures up for us more innocent times - times when you and I were still young and impressionable and could be made to feel afraid of things that go bump in the night.  Our current fears of mortgages and credit scores don't have quite the same flavor to them.  At that age, we delighted in the knowledge that we were consuming images and words that were't "wholesome" or "educational" (or any of the other things that our parents and teachers told us we should read), but what did we care?  Ultimately, that is the cultural significance of Tales from the Crypt today.  It turns us into children again.

The History of "Tales of the Crypt" and EC Comics Horror Part II

The continuing story of the history of 'Tales from the Crypt' and EC Comics Horror

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The History of "Tales of the Crypt" and EC Comics Horror Part II
Read Part I

Going back in history

By 1952, over twenty publishing companies, including Gaines’ EC Comics, were putting out nearly seven hundred titles per month.  Approximately one hundred million comic books were sold each week.  In his book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), cultural historian David Hajdu presents reports that the average comic book issue had a pass along rate of six or more readers.  In the early 1950s, comics reached more people than magazines, radio, and television.

Comics and pulp


The crime comics of the time and the pulp magazines on which they were partly based saw the rise of a subgenre of narrative that featured sadistic villains and graphic scenes of torture and death.  With influences from the Grand Guignol theater of Paris, these stories moved ever closer to the outright salacious tone of the horror genre proper. In 1947, Avon Publications, a subsidiary of the American News Company, published Eerie, the first comic book with original horror content.  When Gaines showed on the scene in 1947, the market was primed for a new direction.  Titles like Tomb of Terror, Adventures into the Unknown, The Tormented, and Chamber of Chills began to pop up.  By the early 1950s, a third of all comics were horror comics.

Max Gaines and the founding of Educational Comics


Before the realization of that new industry direction and before Gaines himself even entered the scene, it was Gaines' father, Maxwell Charles Gaines, referred to as Max, who pioneered the industry and provided the conditions for the spark to happen.  Born in New York City in 1894, Max grew into a combative and uncompromising personality.  In The Mad World of William Gaines (1972), author Frank Jacobs recounts an incident when a four-year-old Max leaned out of a second-story window and fell out, catching his leg on a picket fence on the way down.  The leg became the source of a lifetime of pain and discomfort, often contributing to his aggravated temperament as an adult. Gaines and his father did not get along, the latter charging that the former would never amount to anything.  By Gaines’ recollection, Max “expected the worse from his son and was rarely disappointed,” and would often employ the stern reproaches of a leather belt to make his point.  Nonetheless, Max proved a pivotal character in the history of the American comic book. Famous Funnies, 1933. The first comic book.
Up until around 1933, comics were printed predominantly in strip format, though a couple of newspaper tabloid inserts had been published by then.  Max became the first to compile the strips into what cultural historians recognize as the first true American comic book – a 36-page book called Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics (1933).  With the subsequent Funnies on Parade, Max invented a whole new market for publishers – the beginning of the comic book industry. In an essay entitled Narrative Illustration: The Story of Comics, Max traced the origins of the comic book to the time of the prehistoric caveman, who would scratch and paint records of mythologies and daily life on cave walls.  He contends that these stories satisfied mankind’s innate urge to depict a story and tell it for the record.  “[Comic books’] appeal to the consumer,” he writes in the piece, “is also of profound significance and their method of approach has been recognized and adapted to purposes of propaganda and advertising.  Many of their artists have ingenuity, imagination, and an unerring control of the pen in communicating ideas.” Max went on to found Educational Comics in 1944 after he acquired the rights to the comic book title, Picture Stories from the Bible.  With the objective of using his company to market religious and educational stories to schools and churches, Max set about making his mark on the industry.  Picture Stories from American History, Land of the Lost, and Animal Fables became the company’s bread and butter.  These wholesome preliminary titles were a far cry from the slew of gleefully distasteful ones that his son Bill would later publish.
On August 20, 1947, Max took a speedboat trip out onto Lake Placid in New York with his friend Sam Irwin and Irwin’s 8-year-old son, William.  Tragedy struck when another speedboat collided with theirs.  Max was able to hurl Irwin’s son out of the way at the last second before the collision.  Unfortunately, Sam and Max were both killed.  Gaines was 25-years-old when he inherited his late father’s business.  His mother had to request it of him.  Thus, his plans of becoming a high school chemistry teacher were put aside for this unexpected (and not altogether welcomed) venture. Gaines' first act as the owner of the company was to reinvent the business model from the ground up.  He changed the name of the company from Educational Comics to Entertaining Comics or EC Comics. Probing the history of the new EC Comics, a cultural historian can divide their publication cycles into two distinct trends.  The first trend saw the production of mostly western, comedy, romance, and crime titles.  Comics like Gunfighter, Saddle Justice, and War Against Crime! became their focus – what became known as the teenage market for comic books.

Al Feldstein

In 1948, Albert Feldstein, know to his friends and colleagues simply as Al, came onboard as an artist and effectively started the next publication trend, launching the company in a whole new direction and into comic book history.  Because the industry was flooded with imitators who sought to cash in on the craze, sales took a dip for many of these companies.  Feldstein sought a solution.  In an interview with The Comics Journal #177 (May 1995), he recalled this pivotal moment.
“I came to [Gaines] one day and said, ‘Look Bill, why are we following these idiots and, when the trend dies, getting caught? Why don’t we innovate, and why don’t we have people follow us?’ At that time, we were very good friends. We used to go to roller derby together and he used to drive me home because we both lived in Brooklyn. We’d chat on the way home and we got to talking about what we liked when we were kids. Bill was a science fiction and horror fan, and I was a horror movie fan, and I said, ‘Why don’t we try horror?’ I reminded him about the ‘Old Witch’s Tale’ on Lights Out, Arch Oboler’s stuff on radio." As a genre, horror flourished in America in the years after the Great Depression and leading up to WWII.  Pulp fiction, which became all the rage in the 1920s and 30s, emphasized exploitative and sensational subject matter. In November 1923, the first issue of Weird Tales was published.  After visiting the Grand Guignol theater for inspiration, publisher Henry Steeger revived the Dime Mystery Novel series and added Terror Tales in September 1934 and Horror Stories in January 1935.  The lurid stories of the pulp magazines are predecessors to those of the horror comic.  The radio shows that Gaines and Feldstein admired, like The Shadow (1930) and The Spider (1933), also proved highly popular.  The 1930s also saw the proliferation of the Universal Pictures horror films.  Movies like Todd Browning’s Dracula (1931) and James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) were highly influential. The stage was set for these horror comic book titles to take root in the market.  In fact, prior to the Gaines and Feldstein’s car ride discussion, the idea of creating a horror comic had already been floating around.  According to Hajdu in The Ten-Cent Plague, comic book artist Sheldon Moldoff had already proposed horror to Gaines and created a mock-up of two issues – Tales of the Supernatural and This Magazine is Haunted.  The two issues sat in a cabinet the night Gaines and Feldstein hatched their plan.  Eventually, some of the stories in the Moldoff comics would get published through EC Comics’ horror titles.

Developing the horror

They first tested the market for this new format in December of 1949 with the inclusion of two original horror stories embedded within Crime Patrol #15 and its companion publication War Against Crime #10: “Return from the Grave” and “Buried Alive.”  One of the key features of the radio thrillers that both Gaines and Feldstein drew inspiration from was the presence of a host to introduce, comment on, and close out the stories.  Crime Patrol first introduced readers to the Crypt Keeper; War Against Crime introduced the Vault Keeper. In “Return from the Grave,” two greedy executives convince a down-on-his-luck business owner to commit suicide so that they can take control of his company.  When they get a call for a large order of perfume, the men are thrown into a panic because they do not have the perfume formula to manufacture the product.  The formula, as it turns out, is written on a piece of paper that was in the pocket of the suit the old man was buried in. The men set to digging up the grave, but rather than find the formula, they discover an empty coffin with a note that reads: “I have discovered how you have stolen money from me for the last three years driving me to suicide. I have risen from my grave... and will not return until I have taken my revenge!"  The two executives meet their demise, of course. It is worth noting that many of the repeated story formulas for the EC horror comics (all of which were developed by Feldstein, Gaines, and later, other key figures that would play pivotal roles in the overarching legacy of EC Comics) involved malevolent characters meeting their demise at the hands of the people they wronged.  This theme of evil-begets-more-evil, or punishment being inflicted on the sinner, is categorically at odds with the moralistic objections of the Senators who would later push for a permanent halt in the production of such materials. In “Buried Alive” an anxious gravedigger named John is tortured by a nightly recurring dream that he has buried alive the person whose grave he dug earlier that day.  The dream involves a case of mistakenly proclaimed catalepsy which causes everyone to believe the person to be dead.  In the dream, John can hear the moaning from the graveyard of the person buried alive.  He awakens from these dreams in a panic, and to clear his conscience of any possible mistake, he goes to the cemetery in the dead of night to dig up the grave and find out if the person was, in fact, buried alive.  He does this on two occasions, and to his relief, the person is undeniably dead. He covers back up the grave but is puzzled the next morning after each occasion to read in the local newspaper that a grave was found that day to be desecrated by an unknown graverobber.  In an unexpected revelation, the dreams the gravedigger was having turn out to have been premonitions of his own being buried alive, and he awakens from a cataleptic state to find that he is buried six feet underground in a coffin.  As panic sets in and oxygen runs short, John seems on the verge of death, when suddenly he hears digging above him.  In a final plot twist, characteristic of the juiciest pulp fiction, the graverobber who digs up the grave and inadvertently saves the protagonist is none other than the protagonist’s best friend. These types of stories proved highly popular.  Final, revelatory plot twists and dramatic turns in the direction of the plot became hallmarks of the genre.  When Gaines and Feldstein noticed an uptick in sales, they decided to stay the course and keep producing horror stories.  By issue #16 of Crime Patrol, there were more horror stories in the publication than crime stories.  Gaines suggested changing the title of the comic to something else.

Title changes and the U.S. mail system


In the early 1950s all magazines, including comics, had to be shipped through the U.S. mail system with a Second-Class Entry status.  Publishers had to register and pay a fee to obtain the status.  To avoid paying that fee, they would simply change the title of an old publication and keep the same shipping status.  For this reason, when Crime Patrol became The Crypt of Terror and War Against Crime became The Vault of Horror, the title of the publication changed but the numbering of the issues stayed the same.  The Crypt of Terror (later renamed Tales from the Crypt with issue #20 in December 1949) debuted with issue #17 and The Vault of Horror debuted with issue #12. In May 1950, The Haunt of Fear was introduced with the Old Witch hosting the stories.  It was common for the Crypt Keeper, the Vault Keeper, and the Old Witch to routinely make appearances in each other’s magazines.  Apart from their titles, nothing distinguished one comic book from the other.  Each publication featured a morbid, tongue-in-cheek style humor in conjunction with the horror stories, which focused on subjects like murder, the supernatural, monsters, witchcraft, and zombies.  A new era had begun.   Read Part III   Edited by Kyle Weckerly

The Staying Power of Retro Games

Retro games have this odd sort of draw on people, even those who do not consider themselves “gamers.” These games have achieved legendary status.

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The Staying Power of Retro Games
Retro games have this odd sort of draw on people, even those who do not consider themselves “gamers.” These games, though simplistic compared to the games available today, have achieved legendary status. And legends tend to stick around. Just ask David Kaelin of Game Over Videogames.

Game Over Videogames

In 2005, Kaelin opened his first store in Austin, TX, dubbed Game Over Videogames. The goal of the store was simple; create a store to clean and restore classic games and resell them. Since it’s inception, Game Over Videogames has expanded more than just what it sells but also to new locations. You can find the most recent games sitting next to classic ones, vintage game consoles alongside the latest generation ones. But as the gaming industry continues to evolve, more and more games are going to the cloud. Soon we’ll see a similar shift in gaming like we did with TV and movies- subscription-based services. In fact, EA launched their Origin Access Premiere service on July 30th of this year. Kaelin isn’t worried about this. While more and more games will be delivered via a streaming interface, there is still the draw of the classic consoles and games. Sure, there may be a switch in the type of controllers they sell, but Game Over Videogames will still have a solid customer base. Retro games, even for me, do hold a particular sway.

“Non-Gamers”

There are those who spend hours playing games. The complicated leveling system, loot boxes, combos, etc. takes time to learn. It’s also frustrating for first-time gamers. The graphics are stunning, no doubt, but the thought of spending all that time getting “into” the game puts me off more than anything. And besides, I’m a writer, I love writing, and to be a better writer, I read. I love reading. I read articles all day. And I have audiobooks going when I’m driving. For these reasons, I consider myself a non-gamer. Kaelin, on the other hand, argues that I am still a gamer. Why? At one point in my past, my family did own a Nintendo Entertainment System. It was second-hand, given to us by our grandparents who bought it at a yard sale. Of course, this did not make my mom happy. But that’s another story.

The Original NES

This NES came with the regular favorites, Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt. There was also Russian Attack, WWF Super Slam, 1942, and a couple others. For about a year we played that NES as much as we could. After all, we lived on the northern coast of California. It rained most of the year and the city wasn’t very well developed. We were far, far—far—away from major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles. How better to spend our time? Well, I could have read more, but that’s beside the point. We played the NES until we got bored with it and sold it. Then I got a Game Boy. An Original Game Boy! The grey brick! I still have it and it still works! Even my mom got into playing that thing. She beat everyone in Tetris 2, putting up the highest score and staying there. When I admitted this to Kaelin, he pointed out that those gaming experiences, though in my distant past, still make me a gamer. Despite the lack of an Xbox and a subscription, I was still a gamer. The fact that I’ve played retro games makes me a gamer. I should also add that I did play Goldeneye and a few other titles sporadically from junior high through college. I didn’t get seriously into it as some of my roommates did. But pull out the classic NES, and I’m down to play.

Gamers

Thanks to retro games, and stores like Game Over Videogames, there’s a place for the casual gamer and the self-proclaimed non-gamer to get their gaming fix. More than that, stores like Game Over Videogames provide an introduction for those wanting to expand their gaming history. Younger ages can come in and find out all about these games that older people keep waxing nostalgic about. As long as retro games exist, new gamers will be curious about them and videogame resale stores will be there to answer their questions. More interesting than these games is the mythos that can surround a retro game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wjMn6yjOjQ On April 26, 2014, outside Alamogordo, New Mexico, a film crew, an excavation crew, and a slew of gaming fans showed up…to a landfill. The legend goes that a large shipment of the worst game ever made had been dumped here back in the late 80s.

ET Phone Home

In 1982, “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial” came out This heartfelt sci-fi/family movie has become one of Steven Spielberg’s, the film’s director, most well-known feature films. The story centers around a young boy, reeling from his parents’ divorce, finding a friend in a lost little alien he names ET. The little alien who just wanted to go home has become part of pop culture. The plot was reused back in 2011 for Super 8. It was produced by Steven Spielberg but directed by JJ Abrams. But that’s another story. To capitalize on the ET’s popularity, a video game was commissioned. To get it out in time for Christmas, production was rushed. They did succeed in getting the game ready and out on time.

The Myth Begins

The game itself, however, was not well received. In truth, it wasn’t bad, just difficult. Yet, many gamers at the time didn’t appreciate this level of difficulty. As a result, sales of the game tanked and soon existing copies were either pulled from shelves or sold off at deep discounts. Because of its level of difficulty, the game was dubbed as the “worst game ever made.” And copies were rare to find. This lead to a mythology around the game itself. “The game so bad that it was banished from existence.” Then news spread that a large shipment of copies was dumped in a landfill in Alamogordo, NM. Zak Penn put together a crusade to dig into the landfill and determine if, indeed, the large shipment of the worst game ever did exist. He documented the story in “Atari; Game Over.” It’s an interesting documentary, well worth the watch. George R.R. Martin and Ernest Cine even make appearances. What strikes me the most is the story of the game's designer, Howard Scott Warshaw. I won’t ruin the end for you. Just know that Warshaw did an incredible job on the game and the industry recognizes him for it. And rightfully so. Make sure you have a streaming service to watch it. Check out the best internet deals in case you don’t.

The Mythos Lives On

While ET: The Extra-Terrestrial has earned legendary status, there are other games too. Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Russian Attack, and many more. These games may not have ended up in a landfill, but they have attained pop culture status. These were the games that I spent hours playing. They were simple but fun. It’s easy to point out the nostalgia factor involved in these games, and Kaelin agrees. For those who didn’t grow up playing them, retro games still carry clout with them. Those who wish to understand the evolution of video games must start here, with retro games. Thanks to stores like Game Over Videogames, there’s a place to get started.

The 3 Laws of Starting a Streaming Service

Apple, and Disney, have been teasing their streaming services for some time. Instead of launching, they're following 3 laws for starting a streaming service

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The 3 Laws of Starting a Streaming Service
Apple, much like Disney, has been “working” on launching a streaming service for quite some time. Most recently, on August 23, they announced they’ve greenlit a series based on Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series. It’s expected to debut in March of 2019. This is all well and good, but they could have launched this already. They seem to be following a set of rules, or laws, to starting a streaming service. These laws are great for starting one, yet, laws on launching a streaming service seem to be missing. Instead, we’re just getting more and more updates on series while Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, continue to increase their content offerings, as well as solidify their subscriber bases. It’s somewhat frustrating. The good news is that Asimov’s “Foundation” series will get some series power behind it.

Who’s Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a prolific writer of science fiction. He saw the genre as a place where true intellectualism could reign. Ideas could be thought over, developed, and allowed to expand without anyone putting restrictions on them. Asimov was also a curious one and loved science fiction from a young age. He taught for some time at Boston University and wrote on the side. But when income from his writing surpassed his professor’s salary, he went to writing full time. If only we could all be so lucky.

The Three Laws of Robotics

Asimov created and developed The Three Laws of Robotics. It's also what he’s most well known for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z7a8MTYrDE
  1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. Robots must obey orders given to it by human beings except when such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Law.
These laws have become commonplace among the die-hard science fiction fan. Not only do they provide a basis for robotics to behave, they also provide constraints. Without constraints, there’s no conflict, and even robots need conflict. Asimov developed the laws for his Robots stories. A series of short stories and novels that revolved around the autonomous creations was also where the term “Robotics” was birthed. Asimov saw robots as another character in his stories. At the time this was a novel concept and one that remained solely within science-fiction for some time. These robots, man-made though they were, developed their own personalities. As a result, some were good, and some were bad. While he does have a long list of published works, he’s most well known for writing “I, Robot.” This was turned into a summer blockbuster in 2004, starring Will Smith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL6RRIOZyCM And then the FX Network put it into syndication until it was overplayed. I heard there might be a sequel, but nothing new has come of that rumor. “Foundations”, though not as popular as “I, Robot”, has its own cult following. And now it’s part of Apple’s promised lineup of original content for its streaming service. Which leads me to believe that there are three laws for starting a streaming service.

The Three Laws

While Asimov’s three laws were meant to govern robots’ behavior and interaction with humans. The laws were a safeguard as well as a means to keep the robots in check. As displayed in I, Robot, even these laws have their loopholes which can be exploited. Beyond that, robots were free to live as they wanted. It’s different when it comes to streaming services. Especially when launching one. It seems every company these days has already launched a streaming service or is working on it. Those that have already done so have paved the way. Streaming services, as exciting as they are, still require a means to enter the world. Growth, oddly enough, needs assistance. Hence, the three laws.

The First Law

Build up hype. Streaming services are not created in a vacuum. To get one started, there needs interest among the general public. It doesn’t matter if it’s an entertainment company, a software company, or a retail giant, anyone can launch their own streaming service…well, almost. There needs to be a lot of money first to get the production companies involved, scout out properties for original content, and set up the service itself. To justify such costs, the company in question will announce they’ll be making their own streaming service. And that’s it. They just have to announce it and put out there a vague deadline somewhere off in the future. Walmart has set a definite deadline for the rollout of its pumped-up Vudu service. Disney and Apple, however, have taken their time. The deadline for each is a blurry date somewhere off in the future. But at least they’ve got the hype going for them.

The Second Law

Find an intellectual property that’s not too popular, but just popular enough. Asimov, in the science fiction community, it a well-regarded name. To those outside that community, he may be known, he may not be. But his name is tied in with some big movies, so there’s that. Now, the streaming service must create the original content to populate its new lineup that’s set to debut…sometime in the future. To ride the hype they’ve created, they need anchor content to build on. But most of the major production companies, and other streaming services who haven’t been sitting on their butts, already hold the rights to popular stuff. Unless they’re willing to shell out a lot of cash, they’ll have to go find their anchor content somewhere else. This is why Apple went for “Foundation”, and Disney has promised a live-action Star Wars show. Since Disney owns Star Wars, this is a no-brainer. They’ve got the rights and the money to do a series like that the right way. For Apple, they need something that can compete with Star Wars, and other sci-fi shows, without looking like a rip-off. Luckily, they’ve got Asimov. His work is original and already has a loyal fanbase. It also helps that Asimov consulted on the Star Trek movies. That fact alone differentiates “Foundations” from Star Wars.

The Third Law

Pack Big Names behind Anchor Content. With the hype rolling and the intellectual properties secure, a few big names are needed. John Favreau is behind Disney’s Star Wars show. Foundations will be headed by David S. Goyer, the story writer for Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, among other highly known properties. The purpose of these big names is not only to ensure these properties are done right but to also give fans the hope that they will. Favreau and Goyer are big names. They know how to create, write, and produce content that resonates and entertains. When it comes to adapting content that’s not their own, they’ve proven themselves already. This is good news, as there are a few series out there that have been soiled by big names. I’m not going to name names directly, but Star Trek got ruined by JJ Abrams, and Superman and Justice League were messed up by Zak Snyder. Just because A big name is attached to a project does not mean it is the RIGHT big name. Think I’m wrong? Just jump on Netflix, or Amazon Prime to watch these films yourself. Make sure you’ve got the best internet and cable deals first. This way you’ll save money. But you might get a headache, so consider yourself warned.

Applying the Three Laws

For Disney and Apple, they seem to be following these three laws pretty closely. And doing a good job of it. You will notice, however, that there is no law requiring a definite start date. Instead, that’s assumed. Somewhere, off in the future, we’ll get to see these streaming services. In the meantime, we’ll make do with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and the other services that have already gotten their act together.

3 Reasons Hulu is Helping Disney

Hulu is going to be owned by Disney soon. Good news for Disney, if they're okay with losing $1 billion. Yet, Hulu is actually helping them. Here's how...

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3 Reasons Hulu is Helping Disney
Hulu, one of the big three streaming services, is going to be owned by Disney soon. Well, 60% of it will be owned by Disney. And this will happen after Disney completes its purchase of Fox Entertainments assets. Good news for Disney. Except when Hulu costs them about 1.3 to 1.6 billion in losses. Yet, this isn’t a bad thing. Maybe not at first. Disney, like any company, wants to make money on its assets and not have those assets lose them money. Especially when that amount starts with a ‘b.’ The positive here is that Disney is going to be enjoying the returns on Hulu’s efforts. Sure, in the short term, Disney is going to lose some money. Some. It’s a big amount, no doubt about it. I’ve never owned $1 billion. I doubt I will ever be worth that much in my lifetime. Disney, on the other hand, is dealing in multiple assets and properties across the globe. A billion here, a billion there is an acceptable loss for them. At least, it is from my perspective. They’ll most likely earn that $1 billion back in a month from all the merchandise they sell. What’s really happening here is a training or an upgrade montage.

The Upgrade Montage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBGGEZSAfyY Nearly every action movie has a training or an upgrade montage. Sometimes both. This montage is a series of clips of the hero, or team of heroes (as in the case of the Big Hero 6 clip above), get some new trinket, ability, or skill. Then they figure out how to use it and use it well. If Big Hero 6 isn’t your type of movie, then check out others on the streaming service of your choice. Or on cable. But first, save yourself some time and money by checking out the best internet deals and packages. Now go watch an action movie right up to when the hero gets the upgrade. Then stop. It’s not enough to get the upgrade, the hero(es) in question must use it and in the right way. Time is at a premium when it comes to movies, however. Audiences are not going to sit and watch hours upon hours of training, mistakes, learning, mistakes, frustration, mistakes, more frustration, learning, mistakes, and on and on. That’s real life. People who are training themselves want a break from the monotony of training. They don’t want to watch it in a movie. To get around this issue, producers put all that training and upgrading into a quick montage. Little scenes with quick action, one-liners, some slapstick comedy, and then show the little wins. Once the little wins are established, they show bigger and bigger wins. By the end of the montage, the hero(es) are proficient in said new skill/ability/talent/technology. A big part of the training montage is the song. Sometimes it’s an instrumental piece, written to highlight the difficulty of the training and/or upgrading. As the montage progresses the keys change to a higher key, signaling an emotional uplift. This comes right as there’s a small win. The music then builds as there are bigger and bigger wins. Once the hero(es) manage to reach a predetermined level of aptitude, the music crescendos, and the montage is over. Case in point; Fallout Boy’s “Immortals” is edited down to fit the montage for Big Hero 6. The key changes are kept in to signify when there’s a small win, and on and on until all six members of Big Hero 6 reach the appropriate level of aptitude. Fallout Boy was a good choice for the film, playing to the younger audiences and the hip feel of the movie. If they went with a different band or sound, it would have taken away from the overall feel of the movie. In real life, unfortunately, there are no training montages. It’s a day-in, day-out grind to train and keep training. As people work towards a goal, there’s no background music. If there was an option to have a full orchestra playing while I worked, I think I would take it. Nothing like hearing music firsthand to really stoke the creative fires. For Hulu, they’re in the middle of their training montage. There’s no music, no short clips. But we are past the hard part.

Small Win

The Handmaid’s Tale won Golden Globes and Emmy’s this year, making it Hulu’s first original content to take home such honors. To capitalize on this, Hulu has begun to put money and effort into more and more original content. Endeavors such as these take time and money to pull off. About $1.3 to 1.6 billion in money to be exact. But it’s not a bad thing for Disney.

Long-Term Gains Over Short-Term Revenue Goals

Any new endeavor takes time. The Handmaid’s Tale is a signifier that Hulu is onto something that works. It may not be perfect, but it’s successful. And successful is better than perfect. What the drama has done is show Hulu what to do, how to do it, and where to improve the formula. Sure, Disney has their revenue goals, as all companies do. But to enjoy bigger revenues in the future, maybe taking a $1 billion loss will be worth it? From the lowly perspective of a content manager, that makes sense. Of course, we’re talking about large sums of money in the abstract. I can’t begin to understand how the accountants involved in dealing with the real money feel right now.

Better Strategy

Making money for the sake of making money is a bad strategy. I’ve taken jobs before simply for the money. Sometimes it was because I had to. There were bills to pay and children to feed. So I took a job I hated because it meant my children wouldn’t starve. Then there were the jobs that I took because I thought “Hey, more money, should be fun, right?” But I was wrong. So, very, wrong. This “more money” type of job came with a boss who had unrealistic expectations of me, not to mention he wasn’t completely honest with the requirements of the job. It also didn’t help that other people within the company were incompetent and that just made more work for me too. But I’d be making more money, right? That didn’t matter. After all the time I spent on the job, I barely had time, or energy, to enjoy the fruits of my labor. So I quit. Hulu is doing it differently. They’re focusing on what works and improving that than just focusing on what makes money. This comes back around for them. By focusing on what works, they will be making more money. And more efficiently too.

Calculated Risk

Everybody must take risks in life. Otherwise, life would be very boring. Companies must take risks too. Yet, companies need to be wise in the risks that they are taking. For now, Hulu is risking billions of dollars in losses for Disney to fill out it’s stable of original programming. They aren’t doing this recklessly though. As stated before, they know what works and they’re using that as a guide for further endeavors.

Montage Ends

Hulu has their small wins and as they continue to duplicate them, there’ll be more mistakes. It’s easy to say, “mistakes will happen, learn from them.” But for those who make mistakes, and must pick up the pieces afterward, it’s not so easy. Mistakes can be demoralizing. Learning from them isn’t always fun either. Hulu is doing just that, making their mistakes, picking themselves up, learning from them, and trying again. Maybe when it’s all over they can make their own movie about it and have their own upgrade montage to show the process. Should be interesting.