by xhale on Fri Apr 11, 2003 2:23 am
What is the holdup, exactly? Plot, motivation, art? Real life?
I'm totally new to Sex and Violence (try telling people IRL that and see what happens!). Read through the entire series in one sitting over a modem connection. No need to tell me, I know I have no life.
Anyway, the question stands.
Taking them in reverse order, art is what really makes this comic stand out. Aside from the fact that all the female characters seem to have the same face (but different hair/makeup/cool tattoos), the graphics rock. It's some of the best art I've seen in any continuing series on the net. But you're doing TWO comics - is all the artwork slowing you down? I can't draw a straight line (or even a homosexual one), so I don't know how long it takes. Even if you had everything you need to keep two comics running, do you have the time to draw both?
Motivation. Do you have it? Do you -want- to do two series at once? Even if you could, you can't please everyone, but could you do it for yourself and those fans who -would- be happy? I haven't read any of Joe Average yet (I have to sleep sometime, and I only have so much time off work, let alone in a day), so I won't comment on it (yet). S&V, if run regularly and run well, could very seriously be a runaway success. Sci-fi, blood, nipples, satire and cybernetics... Your potential audience is every male between the ages of 16 and 66 (not counting the few octegenarians who a) can actually use a computer and b) take derpdrugs like aspirin), not to mention comicon chicks, every lesbian who's ever written Xena: Warrior Princess slash fanfic and every goth in existence. Hell, if having a bunch of leather clad Dommes after you to give them all you've got isn't motivation I don't know what is.
That leaves plot. You've said you're sketching these things out higgeldy-piggeldy, rather than having any clue where you're going... Do you need help with that? Frankly, Plot should be the least of your concerns. Ameteur writers are a dime a dozen on the internet - I should know, I'm one of them. It's the artists, interesting ones particularly, that are a rarity on the net. Put out a call for assistence, find a writer you like and can get along with and put him to work. This dosen't mean you have to give up any control - it just means you have to delegate a little to get more done.
You've got what, three or four incomplete plots right now, ignoring any of the sub-plots you could deal with. I have to assume you dropped each plotline because you either a) didn't know where to go with it b) got tired of it, c) forgot where you were going, or d) just said "bugger it" and decided to start over each time you returned to the series. Getting a writer in, even a crappy one like me, at the very least lets you bounce your own ideas off someone else, which is almost always helpful to the creative process. The two of you could very easily get things moving in the series.
Some ideas:
Bring monkeyboy back.
Rosie programs Ajax to steal a bunch of gay robots who march on the fundie crimefighters and drop trou (a la the kilt scene in Braveheart), only to bend over and smack their rumps, firing projectile explosives from an obvious orifice.
Ajax infiltrates the porn industry as an actress, but Rosie has to make some modifications - since Ajax was a waitress and not a pleasure droid, she's built like a Barbie doll. Her first scene is with the droid Bishop threw out (and Ajax sent away). She convinces HIM to do all the killing and he gets toasted while doing the job. Ajax finishes it.
The old lady was a wanted criminal - Ajax gets a reward for offing her, buys the building and throws Bishop out for non payment of rent. She finds him on the street only a week later gnawing on his hand for food and looking like someone who -didn't- survive a nazi concentration camp. -She- hires -him-, after he grovels pitifully (while he's lying on the ground bleeding, mind you). Rosie fixes him up with a prosthetic, but it's like a lobster's claw rather than a hand. He complains that he'll only be able to type one-handed, and Ajax says she never knew he typed any other way (or insert standard Star Wars joke).
Real life. If reality is the problem, well, you're just fucked I guess. Take a number, someone will get to you eventually. If that's the case, this is what I suggest: finish ONE of the plotlines. I suggest knocking off the porn dude. Go out in a blaze of glory, but don't kill of the character. Give the readers a MINOR cliffhanger - maybe Ajax is paid for the hit, but since she accepted it for Bishop she decides it's his money. She goes to find him, but only finds his corpse! Von Zell killed him because without Ajax he was useless. Boom, cliffhanger. Finish all the art and post the entire thing all at once or back to back on consecutive days.
Then whenever RL lets you get back on a schedule, Ajax has to go to hell and rescue Ajax - pulling in the earlier storyline and doing something with it. Why does she rescue him? Because unless he's alive (or returned to the living) she can't give him the money she earned for him!
Continuity, you use the some of the plots you've left dangling, and the return of a more active, -violent- Ajax.
Just some thoughts off the top of my clearly addled head.