Last night I cranked for about five hours straight getting Schlock Mercenary Basic Training set up.
This morning I’m preparing to do a 40-minute presentation to a classroom of twenty-seven 10-year-olds. I’m on in (checks clock) 35 minutes.
And then this afternoon, Shaggy (from Dragon’s Keep) and I are going to see Bloodrayne. You’ll get a review of this I-hope-it’s-a-stinker on the front page of the site. It’ll be a real shame if the movie has any depth, because as busy as I’ve been, I’m ill-prepared for something intellectual.
–Howard
Sums it up quite nicely. Of course, new true believers will end up going back and reading the whole shebang anyway, but this is a great way to let them dip their toes into the bathtub…
What, no Xinchub?
waaiiiiit….
unless I’m missing something…
your first book (book 1) is going to *start* with strip 1000?
isn’t that book 2?
or are we “Throwing away” the first 1000 strips for book purposes?
Re: waaiiiiit….
The first 1000 strips may eventually appear in print, but we’re going to lead with a stronger story and more accessible artwork. It’s a marketing decision, not an artistic/aesthetic one.
–Howard
Re: waaiiiiit….
I for one vote strongly for an “Eventual” printing.
though a part of me will be frustrated by the lack of continuity in volume-ese.
unless you label it “volume 0” or some such comic-book-marketing schtuff.
Re: waaiiiiit….
I for one will be waiting eagerly for the prequel volume too.
One minor nit on Breya’s page: There is no e in ‘disastrous’.
I’ve been reading for years, but enjoyed basic training nonetheless. I’d forgotten some of the details (or missed them, or …)
I’ve only seen posters for Bloodrayne. The posters certainly don’t look classy.
P.S. You’ve been posted about on the widely-read today. Congrats on a small slice of fame.
I tossed the Basic Training link in my signature on some of the forums. 🙂
You do realise that telling people that they don’t need to read the first 1000 strips and can just read the Basic Training instead to catch up is just going to persuade people to read the entire archives from the start all over again?
At least, that’s what it’s done to me. 🙂
The artwork has changed a hell of a lot. Congratulations!
Great job on the basic training!
‘course, I kinda think that anybody who can’t devote a couple of fun-filled days readin’ the archives is too wimpy to survive Basic, but that’s just me. (kidding!)
Seriously, I love things like this, that serve as a “welcome to” thing.. but I always end up reading the archives anyway. Otherwise, how would I know what they were talking about when they make an obscure reference to something that happened 4 years ago?
I’m one of the newbies who was referred to Basic Training. In fact, the strip isn’t entirely new to me. I had tried reading it starting at strip #1, and couldn’t get into it. Not only is your artwork better, you’re better at telling a story now so far as I can tell.
As for basic training itself, yeah, I’d say that it’s not quite backstoryish enough, rather than too much. I’m going to agree that the Xinhuab (sp?) needed an intro, and I feel like a page with short intros to the other officers and the major noncoms, say a headshot and two sentences each, would have helped me keep them all straight in my head while I was getting up to speed.
If you don’t think the art on the first thousand strips is up to par, maybe you could go back and redraw it in your copious free time, like It’s Walky! has been doing.
Meanwhile, what’d you talk with the kids about? I gave an astronomy talk for two groups of around 70 each of 4th and 7th graders. Man, the little ‘uns’re cute! ^_^