PLOTTING A SERIAL WEBCOMIC, PART 3 – The Throughline

by Brock Heasley on September 15th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

So, it’s 2006 and I’ve got story ideas, but they’re not better than gag-a-day stuff because they’re not connected to each other or to any big idea. I didn’t have anything to say, just gags.

And that’s the key to serialization (for me): something to say. An idea like superheroes in a nursing home is inherently funny…but it’s also quite potent. We’re talking about super beings—people who have reached the pinnacle! And now their time has passed and they are not as mighty as they once were. That’s sad. That’s thought-provoking. So what do I, a (at the time) 29-year-old male from California have to say about old age and the loss of power?

Quite a lot, as it turned out. And when I figured out what I wanted to say, that’s when the story began to form in my head.

All of the sudden, I saw how to connect all the ideas and feed them into a theme (a theme which I will not share with you because a) an author should almost never explain the theme and b) it would ruin the ending I’m working towards). A conspiracy began to develop in my mind and I saw how one of the heroes would orchestrate that conspiracy to move along the action from chapter-to-chapter. I saw what drove that hero to such lengths and how the people around him were flawed and how those flaws shaped him and how all their flaws and virtues spoke directly to my theme.

Honestly, when it all came together, it did so quickly.

I wrote as fast as I could, expanding on the story ideas freely and keeping the continuity and journeys of the characters tight. I broke it up by chapters, all the way through to the end of what I imagined at the time would be Chapter 9, but in reality and in the process of time ended up being the current chapter, Chapter 12 – Jackpot!

Let’s take a look at the breakdown for SuperFogeys Volume 1 (and a little of Volume 2) Again—SPOILERS if you’re not caught up with the story:

CHAPTER 1 “Insane Romance From Hell”

Spy Gal comes to Valhalla undercover but then gets stuck.  Dr. Rocket kidnaps her to have his way with her, but she wakes up and turns the tables on him.  Jerry and CS think that Spy Gal is in love with Dr. Rocket, but when it’s revealed that she isn’t, CS and Spy Gal hook back up.  It is then revealed that Jerry is in love with Spy Gal and has been for a long time.

CHAPTER 2 “Bingo Night”

Bingo Night comes to Valhalla.  We meet Dr. Klein, head of Valhalla.  The Big prize for Bingo Night is a 5-minute session with the Healer and whoever wins will be healed forever.  CS wins and is able to walk again.  After a confrontation with Dr. Rocket, CS decides that using a wheelchair is just plain easier and opts to return to it.  Meanwhile, Jerry grows jealous of CS and Spy Gal.

CHAPTER 3

Start with Shadowy guy talking to Babbletech about rigging CS’s computer.  Shadowy guy admits to being behind the Bingo Night.  Dr. Klein decides the SuperFogeys need to learn about the latest technology and makes them all get MySpace Profiles.  We see many other heroes’ profiles, including the Healer, Money Man, Captain Supermarket, Mega Matt (failed sidekick with a broken arm and insecurity issues), etc.  When Captain Spectacular boots up his computer, he finds that it is already set to the MySpace page of Star Woman, the greatest superheroine who ever lived.  She’s deranged and working a webcam. And she’s CS’s ex.  In flashback, we see how they got together and broke up. Dr. Klein makes a decision to go get her and bring her to Valhalla and it is revealed that Dr. Klein is Shadowy guy and his plan is to make CS miserable (he’s lying–he really wants CS to give up SG and go to SM).

CHAPTER 4

Once there, Star Maiden first comes in as the Fogeys are beginning the second part of the seminar–they learn how to play the Nintendo Wii from Dictator Tot. Dr. Klein goes out of town on business (we think), but not before Third Man gives Dicator Tot a gun and says “You know what to do.”  When Star Woman first arrives, she sees Dr. Rocket and CS as their younger selves punching the living daylights out of each other.  Turns out, they’re just playing Wii boxing.  It then becomes obvious what Star Woman’s problem is–she’s has dementia and thinks everyone, including herself, are still their younger counterparts.  That’s how she sees them. Plus, she says outrageous, off the wall things. (A go-to character for the non sequitir)  The dementia is the result of alien tampering (or something). This becomes a problem as they’re playing with the Wii and she sees real guns and swords in their hands.  The beginnings of a romance blossom as Swifty finds himself quite taken with Star Maiden (Their initial encounter consists of Swifty cussing out the Wii, Star Maiden slapping him and chastising him and telling how young and svelte he is and how much he has going for him.  Beat.  Swifty hearts Star Maiden.)  She’s the only one who sees him as he once was–young, strong and fast.  In reality: Dr. Klein, having failed to get rid of Captain Spectacular by curing him, has now brought in another superheroine to distract him from Spy Gal.  It doesn’t work as CS is no longer attracted to Star Woman.  Jerry now has even more of a reason to hate Swifty. Jerry gets shot in the chest by Dictator Tot over a bad game of Wii Bowling (Jerry goes down. Next strip, CS cradles his unconscious head while DT cackles in the background. CS: SOMEONE GET THAT BRAT OUT OF HERE!) and Dr. Rocket is the only one who can save him because Dr. Klein is out of town and he does so gladly, having slowly turned into a decent human being.  He performs the surgery and all is well. The Fogeys wonder what Dr. Klein was thinking bringing DT to Valhalla. (In reality, DK/Jerry arranged the whole thing to make Spy Gal feel sorry for him.)

CHAPTER 5

While he is in recovery Spy Gal tends to Jerry, while CS spends some time getting to know SM again, but CS is no longer attracted to Star Woman.  Swifty makes his move and Jerry, once he’s out of recovery, hates him more. While Jerry is still in recovery, Tangerine comes to Valahalla. He’s called Tangerine because that’s how he dispatches villains.  He smashes their heads like they’re tiny little tangerines.  This gives us a chance to explore the modern antihero vs. the more silver age kind of hero that the Fogeys are.  Chapter opens with Tangerine out on a mission with the Society of Heroes.  Villain tricks him away from the rest of the other heroes and just when Tangerine is about to strike, villain turns into a little girl, weeping.  Tangerine gets put away in Valhalla because he finally came close to crossing the line.  Then it’s revealed that Dr. Klein was behind Tangerine’s “incarceration” as part of his deal with the Healer in Chapter 2 (Healer should make a cameo). We see Klein talking to a shadowed man stroking a bunny and thanking him for his help (turns out later it’s the real Dr. Rocket.)  When Tangerine finds out that Dr. Rocket is at Valhalla, he attempts to kill him, but the other Fogeys come to Dr. Rocket’s rescue (much to their surprise).  Tangerine catches up with Dr. Rocket anyway and kills him.  A period of mourning overtakes the SuperFogeys.  Death (personified) shows up to tell the SuperFogeys that Dr. Rocket is not on the other side.  An autopsy reveals that Dr. Rocket was really a robot double, who had been malfunctioning and turning into a good guy.  The Society of Heroes (including Captain Spectacular II) find the real Dr. Rocket (who can walk, wears black gloves, has a pet bunny and has three long, stringy hairs and no friendship with Captain Spectacular) and bring him to Valhalla.  Once everything is back to normal, Tangerine takes a whiff of the group and remarks, “Another one of you is not who they appear to be.”  Despite Spy Gal’s protests, Tangerine refuses to explain himself.

Now, again, you’ll notice a bunch of things that didn’t make it into the final chapters themselves. In fact, I was overly ambitious with my ideas for Chapter 5 and ended up splitting it into two, with the whole funeral story pushed over to Chapter 6 as a part of Volume 2.

So, my macro story was in place. I knew what my meal looked like.  I knew where I was headed and I knew roughly how to get there. Now all my energies could be focused on the individual chapters themselves.

Next: Breaking Down a Chapter

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PLOTTING A SERIAL WEBCOMIC, PART 2 – How I Started This SuperFogeys Thing

by Brock Heasley on September 14th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

The first thing you have to do with any new concept is generate story ideas. I had my basic idea: superheroes in a nursing home. I even had some of the characters worked out. But what to do with them? In the fall of 2006, I spent a few minutes jotting down whatever came to me and I generated this list of story ideas (BEWARE – Spoilers for those who are not current on their SuperFogeys):

SuperFogeys Story Ideas

1. Everyone gets on MySpace as part of a technology seminar and finds Star Woman working a webcam.

2. Dr. Klein brings in a Wii and Star Woman sees everyone battling demons and the like.

3. Dr. Klein has one-on-one interviews with everyone in a effort to get Spy Gal away from CS.  (Jerry revealed as Dr. Klein at the end?)

4. Tangerine comes to Valhalla and wants to kill Dr. Rocket.  The other SuperFogeys have to step up to save him.  Then, Tangerine does kill Dr. Rocket and he’s revealed as a robot double.  Dr. Klein then moves to get the real Dr. Rocket into Valhalla by enlisting the help of the Society of Heroes.

5. Visits from their family members send  the SuperFogeys into a depression.  Tangerine’s son is The Healer.  “Father, homicidal as ever I see.”  The Healer accuses Tangerine of killing his mother and Tangerine responds: “Our romance was epic.  I’m an antihero, she was a ninja.  It could only end one way.”

6. The younger versions of the SuperFogeys time travel to the future to meet their older counterparts.  Except a time-travel accident occurs and instead of a younger Swifty, an OLDER Swifty comes through and the older one is far more venomous and incorrigible.

7. A sidekick youth group comes to visit the SuperFogeys and do some caroling.  They’re brats.

8. Swifty hooks up with Star Woman.  Why?  Because she’s the only one who thinks he’s funny.

9. Something with Swifty–but what?

10. Bingo night and CS wins!  Gets time with a healer and can walk again but decides to stay in a wheelchair anyway because it’s easier.

Now, let’s talk about this thing. What do you notice? Well, for one thing, Star Woman. Obviously, she turned into Star Maiden later on. Also, there’s no order to any of it. Faithful readers will recognize the plotlines and moments from the first nine chapters of SuperFogeys, but the throughline isn’t there yet and the last idea was actually the first one used, in Chapter Two – Bingo Night.

This was me just brainstorming. Just taking the concept of superheroes and marrying it to a nursing home and seeing what I came up with. As you can see, some big ideas were right there from the start. Jerry as Dr. Klein a cool idea, though I had no idea yet how, logistically, that would work–or even why. Not all of the ideas were good. Number 7 never happened. Number 9…I’m not sure what I was thinking there. I don’t think I even knew at the time. Maybe I had an idea and then lost it. Doesn’t matter. I moved on. I wrote the ideas down as they came to me, abandoned them when they didn’t.

What’s important is that I got the ideas down. How did it all fit together? What, thematically, was I trying to say? That all came next.

Next: The Throughline

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PLOTTING A SERIAL WEBCOMIC, PART 1 – WHAT’S IN A MEAL?

by Brock Heasley on September 13th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

Webcomics are not made for serial storytelling. A lot of people are going to disagree with me on this point, but it’s my contention that if you don’t acknowledge that basic reality, you will not be able to successfully make a serial webcomic.

Fact is, readers of webcomics don’t read every day (or every day you post an update). This is why a lot of webcomics go the gag-a-day route. Gag-a-day comics don’t depend on you keeping track of things like storylines and relationships. They trade on character and, well, gags. Stuff you don’t need a ton of context for.

WHAT’S IN A MEAL?

Serial webcomics (and I’m defining webomics in this case as comics that are posted online according to a schedule—comics posted as entire chapters or issues or complete stories need not apply) are like meals doled out a bite a time. Meals have different components (entrees, side dishes, non-alcoholic beer, etc.) that all work together to deliver a complete experience. You eat it one bite at a time, but you’d never spread the experience of eating a meal out over several weeks or even a year.

If you ate a meal over the course of a year, how would know it was any good? How would you even be able to remember what the first bite tasted like? What if one of the side dishes is no good? Six months into your year long meal, would you just give up on it and never bother with the dessert?

There’s really only one way to make a meal that someone would be willing to stick with for an entire year and feel satisfied by the end: make every bite count.

And here’s what I mean by “count:” every bite has to not only be a satisfying experience on it’s own, it’s got to work as an essential piece of the whole meal, remind the mind and spirit about what’s come before, and excite them for what comes next.

Geez, when I put it like that it sounds impossible. But it’s not.

That was my base understanding. That’s what I had in mind before starting The SuperFogeys. To me, each Volume of SF is the meal. The chapters are the dishes. The strips are the bites.

It’s a model you can apply liberally, all the way down. Let’s say one strip is a meal. The panels the dishes and the dialogue and actions the bites. You get the idea. What’s important is breaking things down in ways that you brain can process through it.

Over the next five parts in this six-part series, I’ll tell you how my brain does it.

Next: How I Started This SuperFogeys Thing

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DEMONY CARS

by Brock Heasley on September 12th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

Before there was The SuperFogeys, there was the blog “From Behind the Light.” This is from 2005:

I think the powers of darkness tried to kill me last night.

How do I know this? First of all, it was nighttime. Everyone knows that Satan would not kill you during the day. It just wouldn’t be cool.

Second of all, my almost death came in three parts. Three is a very significant number in demonology. If you take the number three and times it by two then you have a six. If you have three sixes (Notice how all of the sudden the number three popped up again?) and put them together you have… that’s right. 666.

The third indicator of darkness was my own personal road rage. I am normally a calm, peaceful individual. When I drive, I imagine that my wheels are gliding along a road made of water and incense. Yes, it makes no sense, but can you imagine two things that inspire more tranquility than water and incense?  I certainly can’t. So, how then could it be that I, the envy of Tibetan Monks everywhere (especially in, y’know, Tibet) could experience road rage? It’s not possible. Unless… unless powerful dark forces were at work. Which they WERE.

First came the Omen. I had driven way out into the country to pick up one of the youths in my church to take him to an activity. He wasn’t there. Why was he not there? He was, at that very moment, rehearsing in a choir for a performance of ‘Handel’s Messiah.’ Truly, dark forces had already taken control of the evening.

So I made my way back into the city towards the church, alone. When you are alone, you are the most vulnerable to a Satanic attack. Satan wasted no time; upon making my way onto the main road that led back to town, I was immediately confronted with a Honda Civic. An evil Honda Civic.  How did I know it was evil?  It was a Honda Civic. Also, we were on a 50 mph road and this car had the audacity to only go 35 mph. I remained calm. I thought about flashing my lights.  “No, no. I can just pass him.” So I did. Crisis averted, right?

Wrong. This was just the first salvo. I was being lulled into a state of security. Having already encountered one lazy driver, what were the odds that I’d encounter two? Pretty even, as it turned out.

As soon as I was back into town, a Mustang pulled out in front of me. No problem there, it wasn’t like he cut me off or anything. But wait… what was this? Yep, you’ve already guessed it. This Mustang, this car with so much horsepower in it it was actually NAMED AFTER A HORSE, was doing about 25 mph in a 45 mph zone. “No problem,” I said to myself. “I can just pass him.”

A couple of oncoming cars blocked my initial attempts, but soon I was on my way. “Plenty of room,” I thought to myself. So there I am, rocking out to Enya, and it’s just as I’m up alongside the Mustang and staring down the headlights of the car that was rushing quickly towards me that I realized something very, very wrong was occurring. The Mustang was speeding up!  I sped up more, and the Mustang matched me. Demony sounds emanated from it’s engine.

At about 3 seconds away from my own death, I slammed on the brakes and took my place once more behind the Mustang. Thoughts of water and incense left me and I cursed Enya’s Celtic wordplay. I was mad now. The Mustang immediately pulled off to the side of the road. I do not know why it did this; I can only suspect it might have been pulled over by an invisible demon cop that reprimanded it for it’s failed attempt on my life. But that is only speculation on my part.

It was time for my revenge. It was time to rage.

I honked my horn.

But even then, Satan was not done. Everything that had happened so far on the road that evening was just a prelude to the ultimate evil.

That’s right, a mini van.

I was not 100 feet further down the road when the white beast pulled out in front of me. There was a stop sign on it’s side of the street, but it did not care.  It was time for it to go, right then. How else to ensure my death?  So there I am, doing 50 mph in a 45 mph zone (remember, I was raging) and this mini van, this monster from hell, pulls right in front of me and proceeds to go precisely as slow as he needs to to make sure that I rear-end him. But I was smarter than that,  I knew what to do. I slowed down to an appropriate speed and didn’t tail him.  Though I was raging, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

Three attempts on my life and I had emerged victorious. But it wasn’t just me.  I had protection, and I knew who my provider was. I was alive and it felt good.  I was also in the perfect spot to exact my final revenge. Again, I honked my horn.

That’s right, two horn honkings. Take that, Satan.

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IT’S A WAR–IN THE STARS!!!

by Brock Heasley on September 9th, 2011
Posted In: Uncategorized

Yesterday, for the very first time in my life, I stared at the title “Star Wars” long enough to break it away from all childhood and cognitive associations to see it for what it really is:

Utterly ridiculous.

I broke it down for you in the title of this post. It’s a war–in the stars! Imagine seeing that title for the very first time in 1977, before you knew anything else about the movie. You’d laugh. You’d just have to laugh. It’s Snakes on a Plane obvious. It’s a title and a plot summary all in one. Try applying that title logic to other films and see how far you get before cracking up.

The Godfather? Mob Wars. Citizen Kane? Man Rich and Sad. Lawrence of Arabia? White Man Saves Dark Men. Armageddon? Michael Bay Makes You Cry and Hate Yourself for Being a Sap.

I take it back. Star Wars is not a stupid title at all. It’s just good ol’ truth in advertising.

With the release of the entire Star Wars saga (And it really does get to be called a “saga”–which is defined as a “cross-generational story” Sorry, Twilight. You don’t count. Stop trying.) on Blu-ray next week, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how my relationship with Star Wars has changed over the years and why in the world I put $100 down on a movie series I’ve already purchased at least three times.

My earliest Star Wars memory? Begging my father to leave the theater because Empire Strikes Back was too scary. I was 3-years old. That’s my first memory–a negative one. I was born the year A New Hope came out, so I didn’t see it in the theater, only on VHS. My favorite Star Wars movie has always been Return of the Jedi, which, I know, is blasphemy. I mean, Ewoks. But I saw Jedi five times in the theater in 1983. And my dad took me each and every time, the last after I’d been stung by a bee on my thumb. I’m allergic to bees. We sat, in order from left to right–my dad, me, and my giant thumb on a pillow in the seat next to me. For those two and a half hours, it didn’t hurt.

Flash forward to 1997 and the Special Editions come out. I’m on a mission, so I can’t see ‘em. So, no, I’ve never, ever seen A New Hope on the big screen. I get home a year later and I see the weird new stuff, but it’s still Star Wars.

You all know what happened after that with the prequels and the disappointment that was. It seemed the older I got, the younger Star Wars got. I guess that makes sense when you’re talking about a space adventure aimed at kids, but the prequels aged me faster than necessary. By which I mean, Jar Jar.

So, I kind of fell out of love with Star Wars. A lot of us did. There’s still a lot to like there and I will always think the aesthetic of it is BRILLIANT (I even own a custom made storm trooper suit–good luck telling me apart from the real deal when I wear it), but the bloom is off the onion at this point.

And still I pre-ordered the Blu-rays to the tune of $100. (Mind you, it was $100 entirely financed by the sale of a bunch of my old DVDs–I’m neither rich nor loco.) And, I think, the simplest explanation as to why is this: my kids.

I have three little girls and a couple of them have seen all six movies many times, but it’s been a while. They don’t remember them all that well. And they LOVE Blu-ray as much as I do. (Seriously–Cami, who is six but developmentally delayed, can say all of six words and one of them is “Blu-ray.”) They see with very different eyes than I do and through their eyes I can watch the movies again, fresh.

I’ve heard about the changes. The Yoda puppet in The Phantom Menace is gone and replaced with the CGI Yoda (good). A lot of the lightsabers have been color corrected (good), but not all of them (whatever). The Ewoks have pupils and can blink now (fine). Darth Vader says “No. Noooooo!!” before tossing The Emperor (very bad).

I can live with all of that. More importantly, my kids aren’t going to care and won’t know it’s any different. They’ll watch the movies in wonder and awe and the new stuff will just fly right by. I wonder if they’ll enjoy the movies. I think they will. I hope they will.

And if they don’t?

Well, then, of course it’s all George Lucas’ fault for adding “Jedi Rocks” and taking away “Yub Nub.” Seriously, never let George Lucas DJ your party. His taste is just the worst.

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