Thursday, December 27, 2012

An Open Letter to Joss Whedon... Because Why Not?

Dear Mr. Whedon,

I am an actor-- WAIT! DON'T STOP READING YET!!! Let me try this again.

There is a character in the Marvel universe named after me, and I think you should cast me to play him... me... him. Please let me explain.

Christopher M. Walsh first appears in Invincible Iron Man #8. He is a HAMMER agent, working for Norman Osborn. Agent Walsh is a minor character who has appeared in a handful of issues since then. I have fairly good reason to believe that this character is named after me.

Invincible Iron Man was written by Matt Fraction. "Matt Fraction" is the pen name of Matt Fritchman. Matt Fritchman lived about a block from my house when we were around eight years old. We were best friends for a few years, until his family moved out of town. During the time we knew each other, our lives were entirely consumed by Star Wars, Legos, GI Joe, and comic books. We even once attempted to write our own comic book. I lost interest, but it apparently stuck for Matt.

Matt and I lost touch and haven't spoken in almost 30 years, except for one brief exchange over MySpace in the mid-2000s, shortly after I figured out that the Matt whose books I'd been reading was the same as the Matt with whom I discovered my inner geek all those years ago.

So, I can't prove my hypothesis - at least, not without getting a hold of Mr. Fraction and asking him point blank, which just sounds awkward - but the circumstantial evidence is pretty convincing, don't you think?

I have no actual expectation that you are going to drop everything and write the next Avengers or SHIELD script with me in mind. That would be crazy talk. Frankly, I would be thrilled to learn that you even got a chance to read this letter. But on the off-chance that you do read it, and for some reason you find a place for that random character in one of your projects, I hope you'll remember this letter. I actually am an actor. I'm based in Chicago and most of my work is on stage. I'm a member of the artistic ensemble at Lifeline Theatre, where we adapt literary works for the stage. I'm currently writing an adaptation of China MiƩville's The City & The City which opens in February 2013.

I'm also a huge fan of yours. Firefly is one of the greatest things since... well, since Matt and I made up our own Star Wars stories with our toys back in the early '80s. I can't wait to see what you do next.

Best Wishes,

Christopher M. Walsh
(the real one)
christophermwalsh.com

(See? We even kinda look alike! Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is ASDF.com redirecting here?

Happy Holidays,
Joss Whedon

Christopher said...

That's a good question. You'll have to ask the folks at asdf.com!

And Happy New Year to you, "Joss!"

foto lucu said...

I want my asdf.com back!

troy said...

That is awesome sir!

Anonymous said...

Chris,

I'm the author of the original comment. I've posted a formal apology for the fake 'Joss Whedon' signature, however when I couldn't recall the URL of your site -- it made it tough to reach you. After sleuthing for a while (and with the help of an ASDF'er), I was provided a link back to this post. You can read my formal apology below. Sorry again for the trouble, and best of luck in following your dreams.

[URL] http://forums.asdf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21195&p=369294#p369258

Warm Regards,
dlibnettahcs

Christopher said...

Thanks, dlibnettahcs!

I took no offense from your original post, but I appreciate the apology. And I should probably apologize to the regular ASDF.com users who were inconvenienced by the redirect. It was arranged by an old high school friend of mine who liked my post and wanted to give it a little extra exposure.