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TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-05
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LUg-7zDWHo
what do you do when you discover your passion when it's coursing through your veins when it's burning you what do you do I was lucky enough I found my past when I was a kid it was comic books super heroes particularly Batman and all they wanted to do since I was eight years old was right Batman comics and show the whole world what the dark and
serious true Batman was like but how was I going to do that I had three big problems I'm a blue collar kid from New Jersey I mean come from money my dad was a stone Mason my mom was a bookkeeper I couldn't buy my way into Hollywood I didn't have any relatives in Hollywood I didn't know anybody in Hollywood how do you get there from here
how do you make your dreams come true well you guys you are looking at the world's total comic book geek my mom said that I learned to read before was four years old from comic books I went to the first comic con ever held on the planet earth a flea bag hotel in downtown New York two hundred of us showed up at that first comicon first
time fans were able to meet each other face to face or more appropriately temple to temple and by the time I graduated high school I had over thirty thousand comic books dating back to nineteen thirty six my pop could not get his car into the garage from the day we moved into the house so instead he built three shelves on three walls and we went floor
to ceiling with my comic book collection until it filled the whole place but how do you take your passion and make it your work my first opportunity came when I was in college early nineteen seventies Bloomington Indiana Indiana University and the early seventies were a time of great experimentation on college campuses and that's about all I'm gonna say about that so in response that Indiana University
started an experimental curriculum department and this was the idea if you had a notion for a course that had never been taught in college before I could get the backing of a department on campus you then have the right to appear before a panel of deans and professors and pitches if they accepted it you could teach it on campus for up to three hours of credit
I was a junior but I still could teach it on campus so I said this is great I mean comic books are legitimate American art form as indigenous to this country is jazz super heroes are contemporary mythology I mean the ancient gods of Greece and Rome in Egypt also exist except for they they wear spandex and capes so if you don't buy that keep in mind
that the Greeks called an Hermes the Romans called a mercury and I just called the flash the Greeks called the Poseidon the Romans called in Neptune aka man thank you so I get the backing of the folklore department in Indiana and they said Michael you're right what do you call them Ulysses or Beowulf for Superman it's all the same stories the same heroes and it's the
same themes so I walk in to pitch my course picture this my hair is down to my shoulders I'm wearing a spider man tee shirt I got a pilot comic books under my arm and yes I am wearing my love beads thank you very much as I walked into this conference room it's dark mahogany there's a big conference room %HESITATION table there professor sitting around at
the dean sitting at the end I thought I had just walked into the secret sanctum of the justice league and as I walk in to the dean at the end you know he was an older guy he had this little pair have classes that were perched at the edge of his nose and he looks down at me over his glasses and says so you're the fellow
who wants to teach a course on funny books at my university I knew I was in deep trouble I then began the first pitch of my career he lets me speak for about two minutes and cuts me off he says Mr useless stock pieces come on I read comic books when I was a kid I read every issue of Superman I can get my hands on
but all comic books are are cheap entertainment for children nothing more nothing less and I reject your theory well there's a point in time in all of our lives that we have life changing moments because I could about my head picked up my funny books and turned and walked out of this room but instead figuring I had nothing to lose I stood my ground and I
said dean Maskey two questions so ask me anything you want I said %HESITATION are you familiar with the story of Moses and he looked at me like I was nuts and said yeah so I said very briefly could you just recite for me summarize the story of Moses well he folds his arms and sits back and says I don't know what game you're playing here Mister
use one but all play this with you he said the peak the Hebrew people were being persecuted their firstborn were being slain Hebrew couple place their infant son in a little wicker basket and send them down the river Nile there is discovered by an Egyptian family who raised him as their own son when he grows up he becomes a great hero to his people at a
stop thank you so much I said dean you said before that you read Superman comics when you're a kid by any chance do you remember the origin a Superman is of course the planet krypton was gonna blow up scientists in his wife place their infant son a little rocket ship incentive to earth there he is discovered by the can to raise them as their own son
when he grows up and with that he freezes stares at me for what I swear to you was an eternity and says your course is accredited I couldn't believe it I am now the world's first college professor comic books I can't believe I pulled it off I'm walking back to my apartment and all of a sudden inside my head I can hear my mom I can
hear her voice Michael you can have the greatest creative ideas in the world but if you don't market them if you don't market yourself no one will ever know about it well I'm in Bloomington Indiana and I'm a junior I have no resources what am I gonna do figuring I had nothing to lose I picked up the telephone and I called United Press International back then
that was as big a new syndicate as Associated Press is today I got a reporter on the phone and proceeded to scream at him I said what is wrong with you you're supposed to be the watchdog of society you're not doing your job he goes calm down sorry because what you talking about swim I talking about are you kidding me I hear that there's a course
on comic books being taught at Indiana University are you telling me as a taxpayer in the state they are using my money to teach our kids comic books this is outrageous this has got to be a communist plot to subvert the youth of America and I slammed down the phone it took this man three days to find out if I you really did have a comic
book course and if so who was the lunatic teaching it so he came down he interviewed me with pictures there was a third of a page and that story was picked up by virtually every newspaper in North America and a whole bunch in Europe my phone started to ring I was invited on radio and TV talk shows I have reporters coming to everyone of my classes
I had TV cameras coming to everyone of my classes the NBC nightly news the CBS evening news about two weeks later my phone rings and it's this exuberant male voice hi is this might use Flynn yeah hi Mike this is Stan Lee from Marvel Comics in New York City I call this my burning bush moment this man was my god oh free for he uninitiated stand
as a co creator of the entire pantheon of Marvel super heroes he said Mike everywhere I look I'm seeing you on TV and reading about you in magazines what you're doing is great for the whole comic book industry how can I help you two hours later the phone rings again a Monday in male voice Sir you slim my name saw Harrison I'm vice president of DC
comics in New York City we publish Superman Wonder Woman I go yeah Batman I know he goes we've been listening to you on the radio we've been reading about you in newspapers we think you are very bright innovative young man we'd like to fly into New York City and discuss ways we could work together okay you gotta understand this is a comic book geek dream come
true I'm now in New York City they offer me a job I'm to work their summers and then they're gonna put me on retainer when I go back to school in Indiana I'm there a short while a couple of weeks and at the end of the day about six PM I hear yelling and screaming coming from one of the editor's office is down the hall and
I go tearing I or you okay he goes I am not okay this is the editor of a comic book called the shadow maybe some of you remember it was Alec Baldwin movie about twenty years ago and it was very mysterious super hero the forerunner to Batman and all of his adventures to place in the late thirties early nineteen forties he said I am not alright
because I just found out we have to have a script tomorrow do end hard deadline for the shadow I don't have a script I don't of a story I don't even have an idea for a shadow story I said I have an idea for a shadow story he said you do I didn't but so why did Dore was opened this much and I put my foot
into it and she's alright come and sit down tell me what's your idea for shadow story well you're gonna love it it's really great well what's it about it is about noon Smith smuggling and what are they smugly J. R. smuggling drugs well what's unusual about that I said well let's see you know my wife and I just got back from a trip to Niagara Falls
and back in the thirties and forties guys were going over the falls in barrels of walking across on type groups I should picture the shadow battling a bad guy and a tight rope over Niagara Falls at night with a search lights because Michael that's a great cover it's great visual but what's the catch of the story I said well I've been saving this for the last
because this is really really special that %HESITATION and a were I'm they were they were going over the falls in barrels the drugs were in a false bottom in the barrels they're going over the Canadian side there washing up on to the American side that's how getting it through he goes well that's unusual he does listen can you have a full script on my desk by
six o'clock tomorrow night I said not a problem he said go do it I'm now writer for DC comics turn in the script two weeks later I'm walking down the hallway remember my here's an initial coming toward me is the most important editor in history comics a man named Julie Schwartz who was responsible in the comics for returning Batman to his dark roots was responsible for
justice league flash green lantern the list goes on and on and he was a gruff guy what you got to know me is kind of a marshmallow leaves graph and he sees me White House Hey kid I know yes Julie I read your shadow script you did goes yeah it didn't stink I got all my god thank you thank you so much and he said had
to like to take a shot at writing Batman I still get the chills this dream I had since I was eight years old comes true why Batman for me why did I fall in love with this character because he had no super powers the only superhero with no real super powers his greatest superpowers is humanity and man when I was eight in my heart of hearts
I really believe that could be the sky I thought if I study hard and if I worked out real hard if my dad bought me a cool car I could be him well my dream came true folks and then I panicked because now I did have a dream oh my god I need a new dream ten minutes for the epiphany I need to show the world
what the true Batman is has created in nineteen thirty nine a dark nights a creature of the night stalking criminals from the shadows because I remembered back to a cold night in January nineteen sixty six well I couldn't wait I've been waiting for months that Batman TV series is about to debut it comes on the air I'm so excited it's in color I was good sets
were extravagant but I was simultaneously thrilled and horrified but what I was seeing on TV because while the car was cool it hit me a plane that meant as a joke the whole world was laughing at Batman and that killed me and so right then and there I made a vow I was in my den downstairs about I made a vow just like young Bruce Wayne
once made a vow but he made his Val over the bloody bodies of his parents in the street my parents were safe in the kitchen but I said somehow someday someway I am going to show the world the true Batman and I'm gonna find a way to eliminate from the collective consciousness of the world culture these three little words pow zap and wham so the day
finally came when I thought it was my moment and I went back to the president to DC comics would bend toward me into the company and I said Saul I want to buy the rights to Batman I want to start making dark and serious Batman movies and show the world the true character he was horrified and was very fatherly to me he put his arm around
me says Michael for god's sake don't do this I don't want to see you lose all your money don't you understand that since Batman went off the air in TV the brand is as dead as a dodo nobody's interested in Batman anymore yeah but if we do it in a dark serious way nobody's ever seen a comic book movie like that at all kind of be
like a new form of entertainment he said is there any way I can talk you out of this I said no is it alright come on in so if anyone wonders how a kid in his twenties was able to buy the rights to Batman to make into movies the very unglamorous answer is nobody else on the planet earth showed up nobody else wanted it well finally
after a six month negotiation we see we raise some money privately got the rights put my back pocket and I went out to Hollywood I went out to Hollywood sure I was gonna have a slam dunk easy time at this every studio is gonna lose just lined up at my doorstep how could they not how could they not understand the potential for sequels and merchandising games
and toys and animation I was turned down by every single studio in Hollywood and that's that's not even the right way to say it I was virtually thrown out of everyone's offices they told me it was the worst idea day ever heard they told me I was crazy Michael yet can't do serious comic book movies Michael you're not so you cannot do dark superheroes Michael you're