Q&A: Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith & Kurt Lustgarten
Writing duo talks about their new comic book series ‘Misfit City’.
The Goonies is one of THOSE movies. You know, you’re in a meeting with a studio exec or a producer and they’ll say, “Hey, if you ever have something like The Goonies, that would be awesome.”
In other words, it’s a beloved movie in Hollywood circles. And why not? A wonderful fantasy adventure and check out its creative credits: Story by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Chris Columbus, directed by Richard Donner. Here is a trailer for the 1985 movie:
What if some kids had a buried treasure adventure in their own back yard?
A great wish fulfillment story concept, one worth revisiting. Indeed, there is new a Boom! comic book series called “Misfit City” which does precisely that. Written by Kirsten ‘Kiwi’ Smith and Kurt Lustgarten, it is an homage to… well, let Kiwi and Kurt provide background in this exclusive Go Into The Story Q&A:
Scott Myers: Here’s a description of ‘Misfit City’ from its publisher BOOM! Studios:
Nothing’s happened in Wilder’s hometown since they filmed that cult kids’ adventure movie there in the 80s…but that’s ancient history. Until one day, she and her friends come upon a centuries-old pirate map drawn by someone named Black Mary…and find out there might be some REAL adventure in their tiny town after all.
This hearkens back to 80s action movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Goonies. What was the specific inspiration for the story concept of ‘Misfit City’?
Kurt Lustgarten: You’re right on point. I’d also add The Monster Squad and Explorers to that list, although The Goonies was the chief inspiration. In fact, the idea for “Misfit City” came about when we made a detour on the way back from a visit with Kiwi’s parents. We drove through Astoria, Oregon because that was one of the filming locations for The Goonies.
Kirsten ‘Kiwi’ Smith: Kurt loves The Goonies. It’s probably his favorite movie of all time.
KL: As we were crossing the bridge into Astoria, I started blasting Cyndi Lauper’s song from the movie and, almost instantly, we asked each other how many people drive into this town doing the exact same thing. Are people sick and tired of hearing this song? What’s their take on movie tourists? What’s it like to live in a town from an iconic movie? What if those cynical locals found a treasure map?
KS: From those questions, our characters and story started taking shape and we spent most of the drive back to LA brainstorming ideas.
SM: One big difference between ‘Misfit City’ and The Goonies is the primary characters in the comic book series are females. Could you talk about the rationale behind that creative choice?
KS: I’m really drawn to female-driven material, and finding stories that haven’t been told through a female lens. That coincided nicely with what the publisher Boom! Box is interested in, and when they contacted me to ask if I’d consider writing a graphic novel, it seemed like we had a shared female empowerment goal. I sent them a few different ideas, but this was the one that really took hold for me as a comic book.
The female marketplace in comics has been underserved historically, but all that’s changing. It’s exciting to be part of the movement.
KL: The Goonies is very dear to me, as I’m sure it is for many others. However, after watching it with Kiwi, she made me realize that there are a bunch of girls out there who haven’t had as easy a time getting invested in the adventure because they aren’t fully represented. In all those great 80s adventure movies, the female characters are on the periphery, despite being no less adventurous than the boys. Putting girls at the center of the adventure was long overdue.
SM: I can go back even further than an 80s reference point to ‘Misfit City’: The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books series of the 50s and 60s. Did you draw any inspiration from those?
KS: I didn’t draw conscious inspiration, but now that you bring it up, I do love Nancy Drew. I’d like to think if you put Nancy Drew and Charlie’s Angels and The Goonies in a blender, maybe you’d come up with “Misfit City.”
SM: What is it about action-adventure stories that resonates so much with young people?
KS: Maybe it’s because you feel so powerless as a kid — just trying to survive and get through high school. It’s like you’re in this kind of trap until you turn 18, so adventure stories are a way to escape without ruining your life.
KL: Possibility is so vast when you’re young. There’s so much out there to explore and discover for the first time. I think the appeal with action-adventure stories is that there’s real stakes, unlike riding a tour bus with your parents. Like Kiwi said, there’s a power in that.
SM: What is the significance of the title: ‘Misfit City’?
KS: Originally we had been calling it “The Boonies,” but the publishers wanted us to look for alternate titles, so we came up with a list of about 40 other titles — which is probably one of my favorite things to do. I love titles. I can come up with them all day long if it means avoiding writing.
This idea was one of our favorites because we liked the internal rhyme of “Misfit City,” plus it highlights the two most important elements of the story — a band of social outsiders, and a town that is a character unto itself.
Recently, at WonderCon, the editor-in-chief for Boom! confided that it had came down to two choices — “Misfit City” and “The Skeleton Crew.” One of us was more upset than the other, but Writing Partner Code dictates that we won’t name names.
KL: Eh, it’s ok. Kiwi got lucky on this comic book title Lotto. But don’t think for a second that my next band of misfits won’t be called the Skeleton Crew!
SM: The story setup — that there was a movie called The Gloomies shot in the town where ‘Misfit City’ is located — allows you to do some meta-storytelling, where characters can talk about action-adventure story tropes in a self-conscious way. Is that something you mine in the series?
KS: Absolutely. One of the most fun things about writing the series is getting to pepper in all those little details. And have comedy within the fact that they’re living out tropes from the movie as they’re experiencing them in real life. And also we like playing with the idea that everything turned out fine in the movie…but it might not in real life. Or rather… real life in a comic book about characters who live in the shadow of a movie. Talk about meta.
SM: What was your actual process writing for a comic book series?
KS: I asked the publisher to send me tons of examples of comic book scripts and outlines. There was a big learning curve for me about even trying to write the scenes in a Word doc comic-script-format instead of Final Draft movie-writing format. I’m still actually writing in Final Draft, but Kurt made me swear I’d stop because it adds this whole other layer of work to then translate Final Draft into Word doc.
For Kurt it was less traumatic because he’d grown up reading comics, so writing in panels felt more natural to him. For me, I’m still learning to retrain my brain, but I like controlling the image — it feels directorial. And the extra education and work is worth it because of the connection with the fans. Comics provide a much more committed and interactive fan base than the general movie-going audience, so for me, it’s been exciting to connect with comic readers and feel their passion.
KL: In screenwriting, as you know, camera direction is strongly discouraged. I originally came up as a commercial director, so that was an instinct I had to tamp down when I started writing; but with comics, shotlisting is absolutely necessary.
We started the process by outlining the first four-issue arc. From there we put together the scripts (as Kiwi said, we start in Final Draft), kind of giving general break-markers between panels. Once we’re satisfied with the script, we transfer it into a Word doc and really start focusing on our panel/shot selection and page turns.
SM: How many issues in the ‘Misfit City’ series and how often will issues be released?
KS: There are four issues in the first arc and they’ve asked us to do a second arc, which will be another four issues. It’s a lot of work, but we really connect to these characters and want to stay with them on their journey as long as possible.
SM: Do you have other story ideas for potential future ‘Misfit City’ installments?
KS: Yes. But I can’t tell you.
SM: Finally seeing as your original idea was to make a movie out of the story concept for ‘Misfit City’, is that something we could see happening?
KS: I hope so. We’d love to see “Misfit City” as a movie or TV series, and Boom! has a production company set up at Fox that we’ve been talking with. Now it’s up to us to not only finish writing the comics, but also come up with the live action version/s as well. Can someone please clone us?
To check out ‘Misfit City’ from BOOM! Studios, go here.
