Bacon and Eggs started out as an idea for a children’s book. Betsy would write it, and I would illustrate it. Naturally. We even toyed with the notion during college.
I remember sitting on the floor in our duplex as newlyweds while Betsy hashed out a plot. I remember coloring the pages on the computer in the cluttered “office” in one the upstairs bedrooms of our new house. Each picture was a double-paged spread. Twenty-six pictures would roughly equal fifty-two pages of a children’s book. We started a correspondence with an “agent” in New York, and we both actually thought this might go somewhere. But after a while, the agent wanted more and more from us, nothing seemed to happen, we kept teaching and we decided to get pregnant. Life Happened.
Flash forward five years later, and I started rethink this concept as a comic book; and industry I happen to know a little bit about. I figured the first “book” could easily be repurposed and reformatted as an eight-page short story. The problem was that I would need two more eight-page stories to make the comic book substantial. By the earlier standard, that’s the equivalent of TWO more children’s books for ONE comic. (Let me just go on record again saying that making comic books is the most difficult artistic challenge of all the artsy-fartsy disciplines!)
Thinking about three stories for the price of one, got me thinking about TRILOGIES in general. Which ones are my favorites and why, and which ones showed promise and failed? Why are there so few trilogies where people say, “Those are ALL awesome.” Usually you’ll hear things like One was better than Two or Two was better than One. I’ve never heard “Three’s the BEST!” Ever.
I’ve only chosen to discuss movies that had an affect on me as a kid and/or and a movie theater employee. (Sorry “Screams”, “Lord of the Rings”, and “Godfathers.”) I also consider Bond movies and the Planet of the Apes franchises as episodic fiction. Each installment has very little to do with the ones that came before it.
Not to mention the lack of Superhero trilogies. Some series are lucky to make it to three movies. I can only think of handful: Batman, Superman, Spider-man, Blade, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There aren’t any “good” third super-hero movies. After seeing the trailers for Spider-man 3 (and knowing how great its predecessor was) I couldn’t help but have high hopes for it. I really thought that it would be the first superhero movie to break the cycle, crack the code of superhero trilogies. Spider-man is funny because I think it greatly resembles the first Superman movies. The first of both movies is about the hero growing in his powers and responsibilities. The second movies involve the heroes giving up their powers temporarily to try to lead a normal life with disastrous consequences. The third movies deal with the hero battling his darker self. If Sam Raimi and crew made a forth Spider-man movie, I can’t help but think that Spider-man have to fight Nuclear Man in his quest for peace.
Many trilogies in recent years have followed the Star Wars Trilogy formula: The first movie serves as a complete adventure/ origin tale. The second and third movies are one big five-hour movie with a cliffhanger in the middle. The cliff hanger revolves around the main character in peril and the last movie opens with a harrowing rescue (ie- Back to the Future, The Matrix movies, and the Pirates movies and my beloved X-men.) But how come, the original Star Wars trilogy can pull it off while these other series can’t?
Revisiting Bacon and Eggs as three stories made me reevaluate the trilogy formula established by the Original Star Wars Trilogy and the Indiana Jones movies and even the more recent conclusion of the Toy Story trilogy (which totally kicked my heart in the nuts. Sorry for the mixed metaphor.) It goes a little something like this:
First Movie- Game Changer. Not only is this movie tell a complete origin story, it also blows peoples’ minds!
The Second Movie is bigger in scope, but completely different. The only familiarity is the characters.
By the time the THIRD movie comes out, your audience’s tastes have changed due to all of the imitators who have followed. That why it’s important to REMAKE the first movie with a totally amped up threat level and better technology at your disposal.
Don’t believe me? Think about it: Death Star 2, Raiders of the Lost Dad, and the Great Toy Escape: Again.
I’ve got extremely high hopes for Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises. I think he and his team are smart enough to pull off the impossible: make the first flawless superhero trilogy.
I’m curious to see how often they revisit Batman Begins in this final installment.
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