Posts Tagged ‘brigid & greg’
Awesome + Win = Productive Weekend
I have officially adopted a new comic project. I spent the balance of the weekend putting in some heavy development work on it, with some assistance from Sirfox and the usual beta-reader team, and have begun scripting out the first issue. There’s not a lot of it that’s ready for the viewing public yet, but I can let out a few teasers:
- It is a fantasy/adventure comic, not a “comic strip.”
- It is a “new franchise” of my own creation, not directly related to previous works, although I’m sure a lot of the “standard Gneechian elements,” whatever those might be, will be in evidence.
- There will be anthropomorphics in it, although it is not strictly a “furry” comic.
- I will be the primary artist, but I’m hoping to build an “art team” of like-minded folks who can take on sideline stories, bonus items, and so on. I’ve already contacted one or two, but until I have some folks definitely on board, I don’t want to name names. (If you’re interested in getting involved, drop me a line!)
- It will follow a web + print model, posting one or two pages a week on the web and releasing printed comic books (and trade collections) two or three times a year. It does not have a website yet, as I haven’t firmly nailed down a title yet. I expect there to be one before the end of the year, however, and probably the first issue to start publication late 2010 or early 2011.
What effect will this have on my other projects? It varies. My hope is that it won’t impact NeverNever at all, which should also start running again sometime this fall. (We’re building a buffer before we launch it again.) On the other hand, it will probably put the kibosh on any new Suburban Jungle comics for the forseeable future. There just isn’t time for me to do both and keep a day job — and there’s no way I can afford to do without a day job at the moment.
As for my writing projects (such as B&G), that’s harder to say. I haven’t been making much progress on those, though not for lack of trying! But for whatever reason, all of the book ideas I’ve been noodling around with have languished. However, this new project (assuming it’s a hit) may very well scratch my writerly itch, as it’s a very flexible framework. It’s not the wild and crazy “Throw everything in and see what sticks!” flexibility of Suburban Jungle — you won’t be seeing song-and-dance routines or ninjarazzi here — but it is a setting that will allow for drama, mystery, high adventure, and silly humor, all on an as-needed basis.
In Other News…
The other main thing I achieved this weekend was finally getting some real work done on the second edition of Childproof the Unicorns. The new edition is going to be in a larger format with three strips to the page instead of two, and will be available, barring catastrophe, at Further Confusion. My dream schedule also puts Attack of the War-Cats (the long-anticipated second volume of NeverNever) on the table at FC as well, but I’m not making any promises there. 
Anyway! It was a great weekend, and I’ve gotta say it’s really nice to be excited about a project again. Watch this space for teasers and development pics as time goes on!
-The Gneech
Fictionlet
“Well, you know, I wanted to like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” said Brigid, starting a fresh piece of pizza. “I mean, I was all into Tale Spin and I really like that whole Steampunk vibe.”
“Dieselpunk,” said Alex.
“What?” said Brigid.
“The planes have diesel engines,” said Greg, nodding at Alex. “So it’s Dieselpunk, not Steampunk.”
“Oh come on,” said Brigid. “What difference does it make?”
“I didn’t make the term,” said Alex. “I’m just pointing it out!”
“That’s just stupid,” said Brigid. “The planes in Sky Captain weren’t powered by anything but special effects. Besides, there was a car in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and you said that was Steampunk.”
“Well,” said Alex, unconvincingly.
“Although strictly speaking, if we’re going to pull all this stuff apart,” said Greg, “the real problem is the appellation ‘-punk.’ I mean honestly, how does putting goggles, straps, and gears on everything have anything to do with an ideology of aggressive anti-authoritariansim and critique of mainstream consumerism?”
“Do what?” said Brigid.
“Really, if anything, with all its pseudo-Victorian ‘God save the Queen’-ing, the genre should be called ‘SteamRetroImperialism.’ Or possibly ‘SteamSellingOut’.”
“Well, no genre makes it into the mainstream without selling out,” said Alex. “I hate to tell you this, but at their core, ninety percent of the population actually prefers tyranny. Do you really think an antiestablishment genre can survive? Even among fandom geeks, people prefer divine-right monarchies and happy endings over the messy realities of life and politics.”
“Hold on,” said Brigid. “I thought we were talking about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.”
“Eh?” said Alex. “I thought we were talking about Steampunk.”
“Dieselpunk,” said Greg. “Or possibly, DieselRetroImperialism.”
-The Gneech
What Ho, U.K.!
Just a shout to my crisp and lovely U.K. fans — the collected Fictionlets are now available for the Kindle via Amazon.co.uk!
Come and see me at Confuzzled next year, and I’ll happily sign the screen of your e-reader!
…Okay, maybe I won’t do that. But still! At a mere £0.74 each, what have you got to lose?
-The Gneech
Writing Milestones
Today I started writing new material for the long-discussed Brigid and Greg novel. I didn’t get a lot done, but given the various 16-ton weights the universe has been throwing in my direction all week, I consider it a victory to be getting anything done at all. I had originally been planning to hold on to this project and do it for NaNoWriMo, but I have recently started to feel like I was spinning my wheels and I want to actually move on something.
There are large chunks of the novel (or at least its first draft) scattered among the already-posted Fictionlets. After stitching together all of those, plus what I wrote today, we now have a progress bar that looks something like this:
That assumes a target length of 70,000 words, although I have no idea if I’m going to end up anywhere in that neighborhood. I certainly don’t expect it to be longer, but I also don’t want it to go shorter than 60,000 either. I’m sure as I get further into it, I’ll get a better idea on what the final product will look like.
Tomorrow I intend to do considerably more on it, including a rather important scene that involves the first meeting of Brigid and Uncle Bob. This oughta be good…
-The Gneech
That Must Be a Heck of a Review!
I have Smashwords set to alert me if reviews of the Brigid and Greg e-book collections go up, and this morning I received a notice that there was one to see. …except, the link isn’t responding. In fact, all of Smashwords.com is unresponsive this morning.
Holy cow! My one review was so awesome it slashdotted Smashwords! This is huge! Alert the media! “Rising internet writer gets such awesome reviews he breaks publisher’s website!”
The power! The unlimited POWER!
I promise, I’ll use it only for good.
-The Gneech
Fictionlet
Greg emerged from the hallway to find his Uncle Bob in the living room, which was not particularly a surprise, splayed on the couch nude except for a pair of flip-flops, which was. Greg’s mother’s brother was watching what appeared to be a morning talkshow on the television, while drinking a beer and digging into a bag of potato chips.
After a brief, inarticulate cry of horror and a judicious repositioning to limit his field of view, Greg said, “Um, Uncle Bob, what are you doing here?”
“Washing machine’s out,” said Uncle Bob, not turning away from the television. “So I came to use yours. You don’t mind.”
Greg frowned. “How did you get in?”
“Brigid let me in before she went off to work.”
“I assume you weren’t dressed like that at the time,” Greg said.
“Don’t be stupid, boy, of course not,” said Bob. “I don’t lounge around naked in front of women. That would be weird.”
“Uh huh,” said Greg. “You do know that I work in the living room, right?”
“Go right ahead,” said Bob. “Doesn’t bother me.” Then, shaking his head at the television, said, “These dumb broads. First they run a segment about how fat women all are and how they need to go on diets, then ten minutes later they’re showing off a cupcake recipe.”
Greg shook his own head, then said, “You know, Uncle Bob, I have a bathrobe you could borrow.”
“That’s very thoughtful, my boy,” said Uncle Bob. “But I’m fine. Oh damn, out of chips. You don’t have any more, do you?” He stood and flip-flopped his way to the kitchen cupboard.
“Gaah!” said Greg, scooped up his laptop in a frenzy, and retreated to his room for the rest of the day.
-The Gneech
