Unpublished Work - First Two Pages Of A Captain Video Reboot Comic #1
I've handed in four short story manuscripts and a BACK ISSUE article. Plus, I'm working on other BI material for new editer Roger Ash after Michael Eury retires at the4 end of August of 2024. In the meantime, I hope you onjoy this unpublished work while I put other projects I put aside.
I'm not exactly certain when I wrote this, but I think it was not too long after I did the PS Artbooks intros and my first BACK ISSUE article on Marvel's MICRONAUTS comics. I'd seen that Dark Horse Comics had revived CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT comic books. This inspired me to write a new version of CAPTAIN VIDEO. It started as something like a preview or a serial for an anthology comic. I wanted to reboot this classic franchise. I had a retro sci-fi visual in mind when I began the script. I've sent it to various publishers, but it's been turned down so far. Oh well, perhaps when the time is right, a new CAPTAIN VIDEO comic will see the light of day.
James Heath Lantz 2 February 2021
PAGE 1 (3 PANELS)
PANEL 1 EXTERIOR: OUTER SPACE
We see the planet Earth and the moon in this image. A caption in the upper right corner should state the obvious.
1. CAPTION: EARTH.
PANEL 2 EXTERIOR: A FOREST ON EARTH
The exterior description should say it all. It's your basic secluded area in the woods. There should be a caption at the bottom of the panel.
2. CAPTION: SOME THINGS REMAIN THE SAME...
PANEL 3 EXTERIOR: A FUTURISTIC CITY IN THE YEAR 2231
Here's where the artist should have fun as long as the scene looks like a 1940s-1950s science fiction film or television series mixed with the art style of the 1951 Captain Video comic books. What we have here is a shining metropolis of the future of polished, bright silver metal. Automobiles and Whirlojets from the Captain Video comics are moving through the streets and skies as spaceships are being launched to go to the stars. This is ALLIANCE CITY, headquarters of the newly formed INTERPLANETARY ALLIANCE AND UNIVERSAL SAFETY COMMISSION, whose triple-domed building should be in the center of the image. If the artist is having trouble with ideas, they can check out the surviving episodes of Captain Video and His Video Rangers. Four are available on DVD. They may also wish to watch the movie serial Captain Video: Master Of The Stratosphere or any science fiction film or TV show from the 1950s for inspiration. It might also help to look at the Fawcett Comics' Captain Video comics. Roy Thomas and I worked on an intro for a hardcover volume that collected the entire series. However, the comics themselves are available online for reference as copies of the book are next to impossible to find. The caption should be in the top left corner without obstructing the image in this panel.
3. CAPTION: YET, OTHER THINGS HAVE CHANGED GREATLY.
PAGE 2 (4 PANELS)
PANEL 1 EXTERIOR: OUTER SPACE DURING AN INTERGALACTIC WAR
Space vehicles of all shapes and sizes are firing energy weapons at one another. I want the artist to use their imagination to its fullest here. Whatever they have in mind will be great so long as it fits with the visual style for Captain Video. A caption should be located in the upper left corner.
1. CAPTION: AFTER MANY YEARS OF WAR...
PANEL 2 INTERIOR: THE INTERPLANETARY ALLIANCE AND UNIVERSAL SAFETY COMMISSION'S MAIN MEETING AUDITORIUM
Beginning with this panel, I want to do something the TV series could not do because the Dumont Network did not have the resources or the budget to do so. I want to show a lot of alien lifeforms of various types. This panel should have a United Nations type of meeting room full of delegates from the numerous worlds in the INTERPLANETARY ALLIANCE AND UNIVERSAL SAFETY COMMISSION. Have fun with this. Once again, we have a caption located in the upper left corner.
2. CAPTION: THE INTERPLANETARY ALLIANCE AND UNIVERSAL SAFETY COMMISSION WAS BORN IN THE YEAR 2231.
PANEL 3 INTERIOR: A TYPICAL HOME IN THE YEAR 2231
A family consisting four grandparents, two parents and three children, two male and a female, are gathered around a holographic video projector. They are watching a program with cowboys as characters. Let the artist decide how the people should be dressed and how "retro-futuristic" the living room they occupy should look so long as the hologram comes out out of something similar to an electric eye.
3. CAPTION: WITH IT CAME THE NEW VIDEO AGE...
PANEL 4 INTERIOR: A BRIEFING ROOM IN VIDEO RANGER HEADQUARTERS
The VIDEO RANGERS are shown in this image listening to a commanding officer codenamed CAPTAIN VIDEO brief them on their missions. Make the VIDEO RANGERS a mixture of human and aliens. Their uniforms should be similar to the army surplus ones used on the television show. However, the fabric should be a metallic gray. There should be a diagonal bronze lightning bolt on the Video Rangers' costumes that begins at the left shoulder with the tip located near the right hip. Captain Video's suit should have a gold lightning bolt. A caption should be located in the upper left corner, with another in the lower right under Captain Video.
4. CAPTION: ITS PROTECTORS ARE THE VIDEO RANGERS...
5. CAPTION: LED BY CAPTAIN VIDEO.