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The Fever of 1849
THE FEVER OF 1849
A graphic novel prospectus by Jim Berry and Ron Randall
CONTENTS
Project Overview
Story Synopsis
Character Study by Ron Randall
Creative Team Resumes
"Teachers are Getting Graphic"
Top Sheet of Budget
Production Schedule
Why Support The Graphic Novel
Means of Transferring Funds
PROJECT OVERVIEW
My goal is to raise funds to finance the design, artwork, and production of a sixty-page, full color graphic novel entitled The Fever of 1849, a story based on the discoveries of the Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis.
My experience with this story goes back to 1998 when I first wrote, directed and produced a short narrative film about Semmelweis while a graduate student studying Film Production at New York University. That film, finished in 2001, has gone on to over thirty film festivals and, most recently, screened on Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Lens. The film is also streaming at The Museum of the Moving Image's website as part of their Science Cinematheque online exhibition.
The short film spawned a Fulbright Scholarship that took me to Budapest, Hungary, the birthplace of Semmelweis. And it was there that I wrote the feature length version of the Semmelweis story.
Now, teamed with acclaimed comic book artist Ron Randall, and sponsored as a 501c3 through The Allied Arts Foundation of Seattle, my objective is to assemble a graphic novel adapted from the feature script and modeled after the Classics Illustrated volumes.
Using Ron's contacts in the world of comic book and graphic novel publishing, we have firm commitments from several publishers who concentrate on graphic novels as literature including GT Labs. Dark Horse Publishing has also expressed strong interest.
STORY SYNOPSIS
The Vienna General Hospital, 1849: One in three new mothers die from Childbed Fever within days of giving birth. Hospital Director Klein deems it, "The price that God has put on the great gift of bearing a child."
But Iganz Semmelweis, First Assistant of the Birthing Ward, cannot believe that it is so. Haunted by the screams that shoot through his ward and the chimes of the death bell as another new mother passes, Semmelweis won't rest until he discovers the cause and the cure of the fever. What he finds, however, is a new way of thinking.
Semmelweis deduced that the Fever was due to the infection that doctors carried with them on their dirty, unwashed hands as they came from the classroom where they performed elaborate dissections on cadavers. Semmelweis' solution; Doctors must wash their hands in chlorine bleach before examining any woman.
While his simple reforms worked immediately, they also threatened the medical establishment. Many doctors resisted, complaining that they shouldn't have to subject themselves to such a humiliating practice. But Semmelweis became obsessed. So much so that he slept in a chair by the door of his ward and would grab at the hands of doctors and smell their fingertips as they entered to ensure that they had washed. And so, for his self-destructive zeal, he was dismissed from his post and his hand washing protocols were abolished.
He was 47 years old when he died in a sanitarium, haunted by the screams of all the women he could never save.
Twenty years later, Pasteur and Lister would establish the germ theory of disease. Finally, Semmelweis got his due when Lister said, "Without Semmelweis, my achievements would be nothing."
CHARACTER STUDY BY RON RANDALL
CREATIVE TEAM RESUMES
JIM BERRY's career in the visual arts began in Seattle where he graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in creative writing and photojournalism. Jim spent seven years working as a general assignment newspaper photographer for The Albuquerque Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Seattle Times. In 1989, he was a staff photographer for The Goodwill Games and in 1991, he was the team photographer for the Seattle Supersonics.
In 1996, Jim was accepted to New York University's Graduate Film Program. He wrote, directed and photographed all of his student films and photographed around 20 other films and videos. In addition, Jim maintained a client list for his still photography that included The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York University's Photo Bureau, Deloitte and Touche, Time Out Magazine and Swarovski.
In 1999, his short film script, Semmelweis, won a production grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Semmelweis was completed in 2001 and, has since, gone on to over 30 film festivals worldwide. It was nominated for a Princess Grace Award and won a Dennis Reise Grant and The Carl Lerner Award for Filmmaking With a Social Significance.
In 2002, Jim was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to write the feature length script based on the story of Semmelweis. That script is currently under option with production slated to begin in Fall of 2005. Bruce Beresford, director or Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant and Tender Mercies, is attached to direct.
RON RANDALL was tragically infected with a love for comics at a tender age, and the scars remain to this day. In an early effort to treat the malady, he traveled to the swamps of New Jersey, where he stumbled upon the Joe Kubert School, a training ground for budding comic book artists, cartoonists and graphic artists. This ended all hope of Ron living a normal life.
Following schooling, Ron began working for DC Comics on a variety of features, including runs on Arak, Warlord and Justice League Europe/International. Since then he has worked for all the major publishers on projects as varied as Swamp Thing at DC, to Star Trek Unlimited and Universe X at Marvel, to Star Wars and Predator at Dark Horse, where he also created his own science fiction character Trekker.
Ron has just concluded penciling the graphic novel adaptation for the Warner Brothers feature film, Constantine starring Keanu Reeves. He is currently, writing and drawing a story featuring The Escapist (From Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Kavilier and Clay) for Dark Horse Comics, and illustrating a graphic novel for Lerner Books based on the mythology of the Norse god Thor.
Ron is a founding member of the Portland, Oregon based Mercury Studio, the largest studio for comic book artists in the country.
"Teachers Are Getting Graphic"
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY (3 May, 2005)
When the American Library Association invited acclaimed comic book artist Jeff Smith and three fellow artists to its annual meeting in 2002, the quartet huddled beforehand and agreed that this was their best - and perhaps only - chance to pitch comics to an influential group of tastemakers.
So the artists were taken aback when the librarians professed that they already were in love with comics and wanted more. They lavished the artists with kind words, saying their books were teaching kids - especially boys - to read and getting them excited about literature. In fact, the artists heard that comics and their book-length cousins, graphic novels, were the only books for which circulation was up. "The librarians were way in front of us," Smith says.
"Reading is an acquired skill," says Austin librarian and author Michele Gorman. "If you have negative experiences early on with reading, you just quit."
From comic stand to library
Many librarians first took note of graphic novels in 1992 when the second volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus won a special Pulitzer Prize. But it has been only in the past five years that libraries have developed their own graphic-novel collections, says Gorman, author of Getting Graphic! Using Graphic Novels to Promote Literacy with Preteens and Teens.
In Austin, she created an entire shelving category for graphic novels, which is "probably the most browsed collection" in the system. "If your intention is to create a library collection that will circulate, it's almost impossible to say it's not worth it," she says.
Meanwhile, teachers in a few Maryland school districts are piloting the use of Dignifying Science, a 144-page comic about the lives of women scientists such as Marie Curie and American geneticist Barbara McClintock.
Sandy Hayes, an eighth-grade teacher at Becker Middle School in Becker, Minn., uses excerpts from Maus in a lesson on the Holocaust. Hayes says many graphic novels these days are "much more sophisticated than the Batman or Superman or Donald Duck comics that I remember from my youth.
© Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
TOP SHEET OF BUDGET
| CATEGORIES |
ESTIMATED COST |
| Design and Layout |
2500 |
| Cover Art (3 color covers) |
9000 |
| Interior Art, Pencils and Ink for 80 pages @ $600/page |
48000 |
| Discretionary Funds |
500 |
| TOTAL |
60000 |
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Fund-Raising, Pre-Production, Design and Layout:
June 2006 - December 2006
Production of Interior/Cover Art:
September 2006 - March 2007
Post-Production, Prep for Publication:
March 2007 - June 2007
Ready for Publication:
July 2007
WHY SUPPORT THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
Why do we need this in the world?
People respond vicerally to stories. Stories change lives.
Storytelling is how we relate our most treasured values and ideas. The story of Semmelweis not only deals with themes of scientific discovery and health education but also has a universal and timeless message that we must always keep an open mind to new ideas.
This story has all the elements of a classic myth. And it's made even more important because of its roots in history. Due to the rich context, interesting and compelling characters and the reversals of fortune, it is the type of story that teaches without seeming like a lesson.
What will you be accomplishing if you contribute to this project?
Since the script is already written, the initial adaptation and design of the book is currently underway. Beyond that, the bulk of the work will come as Ron embarks on drawing and inking the story. This is a massive project that, when fully funded, will take around six months to complete. Ron is also planning to letter the book as well.
Under my direction, the graphic novel will parallel what I tried to do in film; A realistic depiction of the doctor consumed with guilt over his inability to protect his patients. His is a dark and gothic world. And though the patterns of suffering, ignorance and nightmare lend an element of horror to the story, it is my intention to equally focus on themes of determination, discovery and hope.
Thank you for reviewing these materials. I hope you will find this an exciting opportunity to help a great story of science reach four-color print.
You may also check my short Semmelweis film online at The Museum of the Moving Image's website. They currently have an exhibition entitled Science Cinematheque featuring Semmelweis in its entirety. Goto www.youngallies.com and follow the RECENT NEWS link - Semmelweis Streams at the Museum of the Moving Image.
MEANS OF TRANSFERRING FUNDS
To make contributions to The Fever of 1849, please select one of the two following options.
Option I: The Tax-Deductible Contribution
You may make a cash or in-kind contribution to the project that enables you to immediately deduct the corresponding amount from your taxes. THE ALLIED ARTS FOUNDATION, a non-profit organization that has agreed to provide fiscal sponsorship for the project, makes this option possible.
Option II: The Direct Donation
Direct Donations are always welcome.
Guidelines for Transferring Funds:
Should you wish to follow Option I, please make checks payable to
THE ALLIED ARTS FOUNDATION
Should you wish to follow Option II, please make checks payable to
JIM BERRY/The Fever of 1849
IN RETURN YOU WILL RECEIVE
•A copy of the completed graphic novel and an acknowledgement of your contribution in the book.
•An invitation to the opening gallery party where Ron's original art will be on display.
•My eternal gratitude
Please Mail To:
Jim Berry
Box 710
Woodinville, WA 98072
Phone: 323 620 3329
jim@youngallies.com
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