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Author Topic: Futurama Meets Brokeback Mountain  (Read 2552 times)
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Ralph Snart

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« on: 02-03-2008 11:42 »
« Last Edit on: 02-03-2008 11:42 »

This is dedicated to the rumor posted on Futurama Madhouse that a certain Graphic Novel has gotten the green light for production.

---- From Futurama Madhouse ----

 55 pages of Erik Heltner's Futurama Graphic Novel called L&A Confidential are up for you to enjoy. Sixteen months (yes that's 16 months) in the making, Erik's creation is now available in our Fan's Comics section.
trickster381

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« Reply #1 on: 02-03-2008 11:48 »

accourding to madhouse its actually now confirmed as a fifth movie to be released in winter 2009
i_need_help

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« Reply #2 on: 02-03-2008 11:59 »

I don't know. I don't believe it. I'd like more info. It could easily be a hoax.
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #3 on: 02-03-2008 11:59 »
« Last Edit on: 02-03-2008 11:59 »

I e-mailed the author on Jan. 14 and recieve a response on Jan 15.  I'm sharing these e-mails.  They have not been edited or altered in any way.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ralph Snart" <ralphsnart@comcast.net>
To: <heltner@webspeed.dk>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:28 AM
Subject: Your Graphic Novel.


 Hello from the USA.

That said, I'm sure that you're getting several e-mails about your  Futurama Graphic Novel.  I'll even bet some aren't too complimetary.  If that's the case, then screw them.  You put a lot of effort in not only the  mechanics or the art and inking, you did a great job with the story.

I'm a straight, red-blooded American guy but a lot of my friends are gay.  I'm quite a bit older than most Futurama fans (Knocking on 50), so I've  seen and experienced a lot more than most casual fans of the series.  I remember having a cross burned in my front yard in the late 70's because I stood up for a gay couple.  Even today, gays may be accepted in certain areas of large cities but they are still discriminated against.  (in the USA, I'm ignorant of how they're treated in Europe and Australia - I do know they aren't tolerated by the Hindu or Islamic religious followers) but they are still discriminated against.

 Your story shows that so perfectly - Leela and Amy losing their jobs,  being kicked out of Leela's apartment, being treated like Untouchables (like the caste in India) and even being disowned by parents.  I've seen all of those things happen to others - only because they were different.  It always fills me with a sense of rage when I see blatant discrimination - a person's race, their religion or sexual preference shouldn't be a factor in judging whether that person should be allowed to have a job or to live in a neighborhood. It happens and it is wrong.  I hope some teenager who is still dealing with life and making his/her moral  values sees this comic and realizes how wrong it is to treat others with disdain just because their sexuality is different that the 'sociatal norm'.

I don't know if you were trying to make a commentary on gay life or it just shaped-up that way while you were writing, but it had a serious
effect on me.  I just hope that maybe some younger reader sees your comic  and it helps prevent them from becoming prejudiced against gays and lesbians.  They're just like anybody else, wanting a decent life and  hopefully find somebody to spend their lives with.

Granted, at the end you had Leela and Amy become just-friends again and Fry left to his own devious ways of trying to make Leela love him, so just like an episode of Futurama, the big RESET button has been pushed and the next episode will be started over again - Fry loves Leela, Leela rejects Fry, Bender steals something, etc.

- Deviation from your comic and lavish praises to my personal opinion -

As a matter of fact, if you've ever been on PEEL (a Futurama message board), you know I have been very critical of the DVD Bender's Big Score.  I have a major problem with the way Leela treats Fry - he's her best friend and ego boost when she's between boyfriends but when she has somebody in her life, she almost take a perverse pleasure rubbing it in Fry's face.  I don't know if you've seen BBS yet so I won't go into the reasons that I have come to totally dislike her in an effort to prevent you from enjoying the DVD when you do see it.

I started watching Futurama almost 3 years ago -at first I was a big Leela fan but have grown weary of her.  Yes, I know it's the way Groening and company want to do things, but the way Fry chases Leela and continues to get blown off, lied to and basically treated badly by Leela makes him look like a weak and pathetic man.

Leela actually enjoys Fry's advances - they make her feel better about  herself - she can treat him anyway she desires and know he'll come back  for more.  Unfortunately it makes her appear to be a cold hearted, manipulative bitch who enjoys giving Fry mixed messages.  Just enough attention to keep him coming back for more, assauging her ego but not enough to even say they have a close friendship.  A perfect e
example - she's always interested in rich, powerful, important men.  She's on a date with Chaz - the Mayor's Aid - she sees Fry at a bar.  She rubs it in Fry's face that she's going to sleep with Chaz, then to add insult to injury, she wants Fry to walk Nibbler.  She does this KNOWING how Fry feels about her.  The date goes badly and who does she turn to when she's feeling down?  Fry.  And she gives him a little kiss.  It meant nothing to her but she knew that if she gives Fry a little encourgement ocasionally, he'll be her personal lapdog to use and abuse until something better comes along.

So that part of your comic I disagree with - Leela does not love Fry, she only cares that he's there to help her pick up the pieces of her life when she's been hurt.

So, enough of my opinion about Leela and Fry.  Just know that at least one fan enjoyed your graphic novel from the cover to the last page.

And the response

----- Original Message -----
From: Erik Heltner
To: Ralph Snart
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 10:22 PM
Subject: Re: Your Graphic Novel.


Hi Ralph,

I'm glad you found my graphic novel worthy to read. I've never made a story like this before, and I was worried that people might find it pretencious or banal. Luckily that doesn't seem to be the case. Ever since it got posted on the web, I've only received positive responses. It seems that Futurama fans are very open-minded. Not that I doubted that, but you never know.

Well, I wasn't exactly trying to make a commentary on gay life. Like I wrote in the commentary posted along with the graphic novel, I just found the subject interesting.
In Denmark we're pretty relaxed about the whole gay issue. After all, Denmark was the first country in the world to allow marriages between gay couples. That doesn't mean discriminations are a thing of the past, of course. In fact, the main inspiration for this story came from a danish book called "Homo" which concists mainly of interviews with danish homosexuals.  It gave me a good idea about what challenges a homosexual have to go through.

Whether Leela loves Fry or not is hard to tell. I don't think anyone really knows it except for executive producers Matt & Dave. Some episodes suggest that she loves Fry but find him too childish to consider as a possible boyfriend, while other episodes suggest that she doesn't love Fry at all.

All fans interpret the episodes differently. If that's your opinion, then that's fine with me.

Anyway, thank you so much for your e-mail. It touched me very deeply. Makes all my work and effort worthwhile. It seems that I'm a better writer than I thought.


Erik Heltner

Cartoonist

Futurama Llama

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« Reply #4 on: 02-03-2008 12:58 »

Hmn. So, is there a link for more info on this graphic novel?
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #5 on: 02-03-2008 13:12 »

 http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/fanscomic/eheltner/eheltner1_cover.shtml
THM

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« Reply #6 on: 02-03-2008 13:12 »

There's been another update to TLZ; that appears to be the best place to go for 'information'.

I have to say that I'm very sceptical about this. (The  ;) at the end of the Jan. 31st TLZ update gives it away, really.) The practice artwork is great and all, but somehow I doubt that this'd fly as a topic for a movie - which is a shame, to be serious for a second.

So my vote is with 'hoax'.
km73

Space Pope
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« Reply #7 on: 02-03-2008 13:33 »

It's all a load of crock.
Futurama Llama

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« Reply #8 on: 02-03-2008 13:39 »

Woah... just read it (/watched it). That was crazy. But it looked very nice. This Erik guy is pretty good at doing picki-tures.
But... considering everything else, I'm going with "hoax" too. I mean, sure, it'd be a good movie, but I don't think it will be made one.

There should be a poll attached to this thread-
"Hoax" or "The Real Deal".
SonicPanther

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« Reply #9 on: 02-03-2008 13:46 »

I wouldn't call it a "hoax", I think a simple "prank" or "joke" would better fit.
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #10 on: 02-03-2008 13:48 »
« Last Edit on: 02-03-2008 13:48 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by Futurama Llama:

There should be a poll attached to this thread-
"Hoax" or "The Real Deal".

Ask no more.  It's a done deal.  Place your vote now in the poll, Leela and Amy's "Special" Movie.

It's fun to debate when we all know that it's kinda way out that such a thing would be made to DVD.

I'm actually hoping that Groening and Company would produce and sell such a thing.
Futurama Llama

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« Reply #11 on: 02-03-2008 13:53 »

Sweet! I suggested something good! Woops, I said more.
futz
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« Reply #12 on: 02-03-2008 13:53 »

Actually it's a large-scale work for a person to knock out. I thought that may be it's biggest problem, it gets boring. It could use some ruthless editing and some Futurama-style humor and adventure. I'm afraid as a episode or movie it would flop.

It's unfortunate that a gay-themed story has to be associated with a snoozer execution and a potential hoax, associating gayness with both. I'm sure a gay-themed story could done well by the actual Futurama production group.
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #13 on: 02-03-2008 14:09 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by futz:

Actually it's a large-scale work for a person to knock out. I thought that may be it's biggest problem, it gets boring. It could use some ruthless editing and some Futurama-style humor and adventure. I'm afraid as a episode or movie it would flop.

A lot of Futurama's humor comes from visual cues:  Slapstick, body language, lighting tricks, etc.  Most episodes would be boring without the background cues.

An example - in Bending In The Wind, Bender is falling and yells, "Somebody fat get in my way!"  He then lands on and crushes a skinny woman standing next to a fat man.  No matter how well that scene is written, it would never be as funny as actually watching it happen.

The writers were fantastic in having little things in the background to add to the humor of the show.  Even though I feel that was painfully absent from BBS, I feel that once the ring rust wears off the writers will have the background humor coming at the viewers in waves.

i_need_help

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« Reply #14 on: 02-03-2008 14:21 »

Futz - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it got boring.  my problem was I felt it didn't have a Futurama feel. Yeah, every so often there was a good joke, but it felt more like a "message" story.
THM

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« Reply #15 on: 02-03-2008 15:02 »

Not that a 'message' story is necessarily a bad thing, but I don't know how well it would work in Futurama-land.
km73

Space Pope
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« Reply #16 on: 02-03-2008 15:17 »

Hmm... maybe they should make a movie of that OC James fanfic about Hermes doin' the nasty with Zoidberg's corpse.
Archonix

Space Pope
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« Reply #17 on: 02-03-2008 15:22 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by THM:
Not that a 'message' story is necessarily a bad thing, but I don't know how well it would work in Futurama-land.


Crimes of the Hot.
SonicPanther

Professor
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« Reply #18 on: 02-03-2008 16:28 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by km73:
Hmm... maybe they should make a movie of that OC James fanfic about Hermes doin' the nasty with Zoidberg's corpse.

Maybe? I'm petitioning Fox right now!
NastyInThePasty

Professor
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« Reply #19 on: 02-03-2008 18:07 »

Um, the graphic novel was cute and all, but there's no way in Robot Hell this will ever be made into an actual Futurama movie.
bend_her

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« Reply #20 on: 02-03-2008 18:49 »

Well since McGrumpy Kryten closed the thread with the poll, I'll vote here: It's a hoax. I think so because there is no way that Futurama writers and DXC could write a story without any science or sci-fi references. That aside, it was a nice story with some good artwork to boot!
THM

Bending Unit
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« Reply #21 on: 02-03-2008 20:10 »

 
Quote
Originally posted by Archonix:
 Crimes of the Hot.

Point taken. Of course, that's global warming; 'L&A Confidential' takes on a controversial matter of an entirely different stripe. (Not that that should dissuade an animated show from broaching it.)

To be honest, I'd expect 'Family Guy' to do a story like this before Futurama does. Or South Park (and wasn't there an episode about Stan and Kyle's dads in a hot tub a few years ago, which means it already has). Futurama can do serious, it can do adult/slightly raunchy, but I'm not sure a story like L&A Confidential is quite its style. 
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #22 on: 02-03-2008 20:21 »
« Last Edit on: 02-03-2008 20:21 »

Since Kryten closed the poll thread, I'll explain to him why I had two threads about the same subject.

I opened this this thread first, then somebody mentioned it would be nice to do a poll.  Granted it's 99.999% chance of being a work(hoax) but I thought it'd be fun to let people vote.  Since I already opened this thread and didn't know of anyway to add the poll to it, I opened the thread with the poll.  I wasn't trying to add to the spam count of PEEL; I just didn't think of doing a poll-type thread when I opened this thread.

This thing would have been so much better on April 1st.

Still, there's a part of me (the lecherous, amoral, disturbing part of me) that would love to see the 0.001% chance that this story become a DVD happen.    :D

-----

@ Kryten:  Neat way to bring my favorite episode of ST: DS9 into this conversation.  And where did Teral get that pic of the Romulan with the cake?

The internet is a wonderful place...
Bendersfan1221

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« Reply #23 on: 02-03-2008 20:40 »

It's gotta be a hoax. If this was true there'd be something about it on the other Futurama sites. I agree that the story doesn't feel very Futurama-ry. And as I said in the shipping thread after Frida brought it up: I don't believe it. They've spent the last 7+ years builiding up Fry/Leela with most recently trowing in Leela's face that she would be happy with Fry and now this? It just seems a little fishy that other than this there have been no other rumors anywhere else that there's the possibility of a 5th movie. So I don't know. If I'm going to believe this I want more facts.

That would be the biggest fucking reset button ever and I would get throughly pissed off. This would be a good April Fools Day joke but it's a few months too early.
Kryten

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« Reply #24 on: 02-03-2008 21:51 »
« Last Edit on: 02-03-2008 21:51 »

In the words of a great American...



BULLSH*bleep*T!!
Xanfor

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« Reply #25 on: 02-03-2008 22:21 »

In the words of a great Englishwoman...

Frisco17

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« Reply #26 on: 02-03-2008 22:22 »

I really can't see that actually being made. It's interesting as a fan thing but it just doesn't seem to fit into regular Futurama. So I definitly think it's a hoax or whatever you want to call it.

As a "wise" man once said. "It'll be a cold day in hell my friend."
SpaceCase

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #27 on: 02-03-2008 23:17 »


"It's a hoax, Jim..."
bobbot

Bending Unit
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« Reply #28 on: 02-04-2008 09:54 »

Sorry kids, I'm with Kryten.  (only sucking up a little).  On the whole it is a very good fan piece, but, it does lack the professional spark that has to be there for this to be even close to real.  I'd give it an 8.7 overall.  It isn't even what it was claimed to be.  Mr. Heltner is just trying to get it read.  A real pro wouldn't have misspelled pretentious.
Futurama Llama

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« Reply #29 on: 02-04-2008 18:07 »

I agree with most of you, however I think that, despite it being rather un-futurama-y, it would make a good movie/episode. Sure, it's probably a hoax, but still. 
homerjaysimpson

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« Reply #30 on: 02-04-2008 19:56 »

Billy West is "_________" is more true than this, really it is!
Vanger
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« Reply #31 on: 02-05-2008 11:16 »
« Last Edit on: 02-05-2008 11:16 »

Hoax, most likely.

In other case don't think that will be a DVD. It's totally undividable on episodes.
It also can't be placed after BBS in timeline. Maybe author was too lazy to make additional drawing of Lars, but Hermes with 37th grade is inexcusable.
Maybe, between 4ACV and 5ACV   ;) ?
Overall, a good fanfic and maybe a decent episode. Nothing more.

I was shocked, though.
Ralph Snart

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« Reply #32 on: 02-05-2008 11:46 »

Well, since the 'furor' has died down, I can admit now, it was a prank.

Not that I was in on it but I felt it would give us a few days discussing something other than BBS.  It would be fun to see such a DVD come out.  I would be the first in line to buy it.  Just imangine the "Family Values" crowd hyperventilating over such a release.

I guess that Krytes can close this now.
Vanger
Crustacean
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« Reply #33 on: 02-05-2008 11:58 »

It would twist personalities too much.
However, if it had big "Not canon" label in the cover and was properly animated in certain scenes.. Well, every Futurama fan would buy it  ;))) ..
"Just for collection", yeah  ;)))
homerjaysimpson

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« Reply #34 on: 02-05-2008 14:09 »

Vanger is Ralph Snart! I won the prize!
Vanger
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« Reply #35 on: 02-05-2008 14:37 »

&#1061;&#1091;&#1103;&#1089;&#1077;  ;) .

My english is so good/bad/distinctive?

/me quickly thinks, what can he give as prize.. A bottle of absynthe, maybe?
Kryten

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« Reply #36 on: 02-05-2008 18:34 »

Everyone who took it at face value, go be ashamed of yourselves.
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