Posted in: Comics | Tagged: christopher priest, Comics, ebook, entertainment, james priest, klang, priest, quantum and woody, valiant

Priest Launches E-Book With Unpublished Quantum & Woody Scripts And 'Combative' History

Writer James Priest, formerly known as Priest, Christopher Priest and Jim Owsley, has published an e-book, Klang! featuring unpublished scripts from the original Quantum & Woody run by Valiant/Acclaim and the original first drafts of his scripts from the more recent revival Q2: The Return of Quantum & Woody series published by Valiant Entertainment.

The ebook is available in Kindle US and Kindle UK. Its purpose and content are described on Kindle as:

KLANG! is a writer's commentary by Christopher James Priest, a critically-acclaimed comics writer for major publishers Marvel and DC Comics (Black Panther, The Ray), discussing the hit comic book series Quantum & Woody which Priest co-created with artist M.D. Bright. The commentary includes The Apocrypha—the six unpublished "lost" scripts from the critically-lauded Acclaim Comics series—as well as the six unpublished original drafts from Q2: The Return of Quantum & Woody, published by Valiant Entertainment. Priest's commentary examines the origin of the series, its original run and untimely demise at Acclaim Comics, as well as the series' resurgence under the new Valiant Entertainment imprint and the at-times combative development of Q2, wherein Quantum & Woody (and Priest and Bright) reunite for an all-new adventure after more than a decade.

One of Priest's focuses seems to be on the "combative development" of Q2, and it has been a fairly rocky road it seems, though Priest is willing to take much of the blame himself. But he singles out a failing creative relationship with artist and co-creator of Quantum & Woody, Mark Bright, and what he saw as a disinterested editorial regime at Valiant Entertainment.  As he says,

And…

And he does admit,

So here are a few highlights. Or lowlights if you prefer.

 He continues,

And,

There were many other issues, or course, including,

But that didn't play out to his satisfaction either.

He talks about trying to rectify this without joy. 

He elaborates further, Though it's something he recognised from his own life as an editor, saying,

But he felt he had to pull out of any press promotion for the project and wanted his name off the book. However, after he had withdrawn from anything but sending in scripts and not caring what was actually published, he did get comp copies of future issues. And his mood changed somewhat.

These are small snippets that only offer a flavour of Priest's book, which also contains his notes on earlier versions of the comic over the decades as well as all the lost scripts and original drafts in question – it's and a bargain for those alone.

And he also offers this critique of the whole New York editorial experience across all companies, which he himself has been a part of.

I wonder if Burbank is any better?

Your mileage, of course, will vary.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!