"CASINO OF EVIL"
(1989 rewrite / rough)
Of the first 50 episodes of THE GUN!, I always considered #2 to be the WORST-written. While GUN #1 was unrelentingly fast-paced, violent & funny, somehow, the follow-up was poorly-developed, not well-thought-through, and had one scene that was flat-out idiotic.
That changed in 1989.
While hanging out for several months with someone I met at art school, he bet me I "couldn't" re-write #2 without completely re-conceptualizing it and changing every single thing about it in the process.
ONE WEEK later, I proved him wrong.
"CASINO OF EVIL" was the first of these stories to be re-written, "upgraded" to my then-current level of writing ability. I guess it's safe to say the potential of my brother's idea of doing "mini-comics" as a rough draft" finally started to come to fulfilment here.
I also did the re-write as a "rough draft"-- as far as the art was concerned. This allowed me, once again, to write without worrying about how fast I was going or what it looked like. Except for the part about turning the entire thing into a tribute to Gil Kane. Oh yeah. For many years, I fantasized that, since GUN #2 was so fast-paced, frenetic, nasty, and violent as hell, Gil Kane would be the perfect person to illustrate the "finished" version of it., Since there was no way I could actually afford to hire him, I decided to do it myself-- IN HIS style. If any of the panels in this thing look familiar to readers of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, DAREDEVIL, or HIS NAME IS SAVAGE, you'll know why!
In my effort to keep The GUN! as much of a mystery as possible, it was HERE that I first expanded the outrageous upside-down nature of the series of having the antagonists (the bad guys) as the "main characters" and the protagonist (the hero) as a unknown intruder into their "worlds". In doing so, the hero does not turn up AT ALL in this one until Page 12!! But when he does-- OOOH BOY!
Finally, I had long thought about "casting" people should I ever upgrade this particular story. I'm never shy when it comes to going against type-casting, or at least defying people's expectations. In this case, the people I decided to base the main baddies on were Robert Vaughn & David McCallum-- and the woman in their lives-- Yvonne Craig. Anybody who'se seen the theatrical re-edit film, "ONE SPY TOO MANY" (1966) will understand why.
The guy whose life takes a horrible bad turn was based on actor Barry Nelson. Do I have to explain this?
Oh yeah-- and if I have to spell out who the 3 killers in the alley are... you're probably reading the wrong blog.
ENJOY!
THE GUN! #2 (1989 version)
Story & Art Copyright (C) Henry R. Kujawa
All prominent characters are Trademarks of Henry R. Kujawa
Don't miss the 2nd PART of this... coming up next!!!
(Continued in The GUN! #2, 1989, Pt. 2)
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