Live, From Paragon (Draft)

Back when I did the occasionally City of Heroes Screenshot Guides, I toyed with the idea of a monthly series of screenshot comics teasing the next issue.  These used my character “Shandora Ward” as my unofficial spokeswoman- I never realized how short she was until I started standing her next to other characters for my comics.  Rather than just correct that, I gave her a bit of a complex regarding her height.

The following was the “script” I used for my pilot comic, but life took a turn to the insane side, so it never reached production.

The devs in City of Heroes, rather by accident or mad genius, managed to make some of the best, most engaging online personaes I've encountered.  They managed to balance autority with approachability and playfulness with professionalism- interaction with them via the forums became a vital part of the game experience for many of us.  I've never seen it done so well before or since.  

This was going to include 4 dev personas (without permission):  Back Alley Brawler, Castle, War Witch, and Sexy Jay.

Issue 13 Draft Script

Issue 13's comic never got made.   I did plan out the following script for its "wrapper" story, but I couldn't make the time to beta test and get the necessary details for the actual information on the issue, and no volunteers were forthcoming.

the C1, C2, C3 parts in the following "script" were supposed to be other players participating in a "casting call." and then credited in the comic- a chance to hilight community members more.  Lines preceded by a : were narrator boxes.  S: is for Shandora.

This is actually my second pass.   My first pass was going to focus again on the University

Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Issue 12 Guide

The issue 12 guide was my last "official" comic guide.  I started several others, but my own timetable made beta-testing alone extremely time-prohitive, let alone beta-testing enough to get what I needed to build a guide.

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City of Heroes Wedding Guide

The City of Heroes wedding guide was "recorded" more than it was written by me.  The idea was to record the "live event" for people that couldn't participate in the population-limited zone.  I was able to add my own humor in places, but it was also about recording the event.

This event was also a creative "renewal of vows" of (IIRC) the real life Manticore and his wife.


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Issue 11 Teaser

Oh, I had such hopes for City of Heroes' Issue 11 comic guide.  Ouroboros. Time travel.  I had so many easter egg scenes involving time travelers that it would be hard to find a panel that didn't have one planned.  Dr Who, Quantum Leap,  Heroes,  Star Trek IV, Bill & Ted, the Terminator saying his "I need your clothes..." line to Serge in Icon.  The list was nonstop.

I had a future of Shandora come back to prevent the "great reroll of the century" when millions of sword-wielding heroes cried out as they were rerolled into level 1 dual-bladers.   Another one delivered the script for the issue to Shandora so she could begin production (it was incomplete... apparently the time I took writing it exceeded the "carbon law.")

Unfortunately, that last one proved too true- as real world events took priority over my virtual world fandom. I never got more than my "Issue 11 teaser" done.

For those that remember "save the cheerleader, save the world." I've appended it here.

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Issue 10 Guide

After the comic book creator contest results were announced, I felt a need to do some sort of "thank you" and with an new issue coming out, I figured that doing a screenshot-comic guide of the issue would be appropriate.  I had NO IDEA how much work it would be, as I had to play through all new content to get the pictures for the comic.  I still hadn't learned about demorecording, so if I missed a shot, I had to play through all over again.

It was maddening- mostly for Cinder Flame, who had to put up with my rants, raves, and spontaneous outbursts.  She was the real trooper there and managed to go back and get many of the shots I missed the first time (and get her blaster maxed out on XP debt in doing so.)

The guide was done the same week the issue went live, and when the devs put a link to the comic on the launcher, I really felt a great sense of accomplishment.

Then all the traffic took down my server.

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Strength

Strength was a follow-up to "Battlefields" and my submission into City of Heroes' Comic Book Creator contest.   I almost didn't answer- I couldn't come up with a story I could tell in just 8 pages, particularly given how much wasted space Comic Book Creator made in the text boxes and word balloons.  On the last day, this story came to me and I barely got it done under the wire.

The cover was a kludge- a hasty addition to meet the deadline, but good cover art was always a problem for me, so I'm not sure I'd have done better with more time.  Things got tight at the end to make the page limit, but overall I have to be happy with the outcome.

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Battlefields (Redux)

When I revisited Battlefields, I experimented with a differnet art style- still rather high contrast, but with color and several photoshop web filters.  It was designed with dimensions that would fit a browser window, rathe than traditional "print" styles.  The above was my revisited "cover" minus the text.

I'd hoped that the style would help me with one major pain I encountered in CoH comics- the lack of facial articulation.  Most of my tales were dialogue-driven, but faces didn't change from frame to frame, making conveying emotion differently.  Sadly, my ability to "nudge" the faces into different emotions wasn't up to my own standards.

Battlefields

Battlefields is the first Screenshot comic I did for City of Heroes.  It was done in high-contrast black-n-white over the course of the weekend.  The coloration was part intended for a "Poor Man's Sin City" and part intended to make my bad cut-n-paste photoshopping less apparent.  I liked the overall concept, though things got uneven near the end, as i was running out of time.

I'd always wanted to go back and revisit it before City of Heroes shut down.   I managed to do a few panels in my new format, but never enough for a rewrite.  Check out "Battlefields Redux" for examples of where it was going.

Battlefields (PDF)