Hi Cure DragonEagle,
Cure DragonEagle 255 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:36 pm
Many anime fans outside this forum may think he's worse than the devil but I love him. Other Jason did you get to meet him? I would love to hear more about him. He worked on Battle Of The Planets and then went on to do Voltron. The guy is royalty to me.
Sorry it's taken me a bit to answer, I've been trying to collect what I wanted to say. I got to know Mr. Brewer in his final years and met him a few times. I wish I had thought to contact him sooner though, since I was only able to speak with him at length about three or four times before he had a very bad stroke.
I wanted to interview him for a book project (what later became
G-Force: Animated). He hadn't produced anything for a while and didn't have a public company address to contact, so he wasn't out there to be found professionally. It took a lot of detective work to finally find his phone number. Thankfully he was very receptive when I called. What I thought was going to be a quick chat, just to introduce myself and try to set up a later time to talk, turned into a conversation over two hours. I couldn't believe all he told me after I had just cold called him. That's the sort of person he was with me - friendly, cheerful, straightforward and open.
When I called back for a proper, prepared discussion, it was even longer and more interesting. I learned so much about the production of
Battle (and a little about
Voltron) during our talks. It was through Mr. Brewer that I began to see just how much work really went in to the production of the
Battle episodes. Far from being slapped together, or just hacking up
Gatchaman (which was the usual knee-jerk response I'd hear about the series), he laid out how he and his production crew really did an intricate, skilled job with what they got - and the time in which they had to do it.
The funny thing with him being a story writer though - he seemed to remember the technical aspects about the production of
Battle better than many of the creative ones. He recalled how and when they recorded the voice actors, for instance, but not specifically why he chose some of the names of the lead characters.
The first time I met Mr. Brewer in person was when some friends and I invited him to the 1999 Comic-Con in San Diego, California as our special guest. It was after his first stroke, so he came down with his caregiver (the less said about that guy, the better). A few of us met him at the hotel we booked for him, and we had a nice time finally seeing one another face-to-face. He went out to dinner with more of us that night. The next day, he came to the Comic-Con, where he discussed his time on
Battle, answered questions and met with fans.
Mr. Fred Ladd, the creator of
G-Force was also at the convention that day and I arranged for the two of them to meet at our lunch gathering. It was the only time they ever spoke with one another, and Mr. Ladd praised the work Mr. Brewer did on
Battle. That was really fun to see and experience.
All of us went in together and purchased an animation cel of 7-Zark-7 for him. We presented it to him just before he was ready to head home, and he was really touched by it. He was so kind to all of us, we really wanted to do something to show our gratitude. Not just for his time, but for his role in bringing us the series. I was told by members of his family after he passed, that he loved to talk about those couple days with "the fans at Comic-Con" any chance he got.
I spoke with him sporadically over the next few years. Another stroke took more of his ability to get around and speak, but he fought back from that one as best he could. If you've seen the on-camera interview with him on Rhino's
Battle of the Planets - The Ultimate DVD Boxed Set, that was about as good as he got after that second stroke. That was the last time I saw him as well. He had just moved to Oxnard, California into a smaller place. He passed away mere days before the DVD set was released.
Even though he had some tough times later in life, he never seemed to let things get him down. He was always his cheerful self and he never, ever stopped writing. I guess it was a hard habit to give up. The last time I spoke with him, he was still pitching story ideas to anyone who would listen.
The cast and staff of
Battle also had wonderful memories of working with Mr. Brewer. About the worst thing I remember anyone saying about him, or the way he worked, was that they had to have a staff member run from the production site to his home to deliver scripts and pick up his latest script revisions. He lived a fair drive away from the production site, so it wasn't too convenient. He wrote so much, and so often, he didn't have time to come in to the production site every day.
I can't say enough good about him, since he seemed to be a really nice person. He never had to take the time to talk with me, nor do anything else he did for his admirers. But he did, and that's what I'll always remember about him.
Here are a few small photos, sorry for the quality.
A group of us with Mr. Brewer at the 1999 Comic-Con in San Diego, CA
Mr. Brewer and Mr. Ladd
Mr. Brewer with the animation cel we bought for him