Scalenex's theory of listing features: Don't make the list till you have actual posted content for about half of the list.
Bob's theory of replying to threads: don't reply until there is some content to reply to. ☺
History.
The Dawn of Time.
Way back, when when my kids were about 6 and 8, the thing I did to stop them from tearing down restaurants while we were waiting for food was draw with them. This progressed from, "look at the silly dog" to "look at the subtle parody" in December 2010, when over the course of a few weeks we did a series of pictures of Reindeer who had been twisted by dreadful puns. Plane deer (with wings), Insane deer (boggly eyes), Cane Deer (with blind cane and black glasses. Perhaps a pre-incarnation version of Blinqi?) and Pain Deer (hits thumb with hammer). If I was doing it now there would be Khaine Deer (with bloody hands) and Slain Deer (probably feathered with poison darts. Death to the filthy beastmen!)
The Spawning of Bob
December 2010 was also the time that LM became a thing. LM began appearing in Australustrian restaurants. Two things happened as a result of this image.
The lesser of the two happened three months later, when I decided join this very forum and thought I would put some images with my
introduction post. I needed a user name, and the choice was obvious. Unfortunately, "Scalenex"* was already taken, so I became "spawning of Bob". After that I posted
an eponymous thread on Fluff. You will notice that I had technical help and encouragement from legendary members such as
@n810,
@Arli, strewart and T`hinker`er from the very outset. Look what you have unleashed! What were you thinking?
The most important thing that happened with the spawning comic was the eggshell. One single recognisable feature. It meant I had a recurring character, which meant that I could assign personality traits, put him in different situations and that he could potentially develop and grow in front of an audience. The fact that he has not actually developed in the intervening 4 years is merely a function of the fact that he was spawned perfect in every way.
*No it wasn't. I joined first. By 3 days.
The Dark Times
BY the end of 2011 I had published a number of random comic collections, had more WIPs and had written the guts of the
probability essay. Then I just stopped posting (life and health reasons)
The Bobnaissance
The entire reason for me starting to post again in early was 2013 was that the Lance Armstrong Joke would soon stop being funny. I re-used or created
13 other comics as a vehicle to propel one lame pun. That's how I roll.
Once again I got an encouraging audience, and I got to actually do something useful with pulling in the threads of the L-O dice design. The other thing about 2013 was the sudden interest and urgency on the forum prior to the 8th edition LM army book release. Wild mass speculation and paranoia gave me much fuel for parody, but the terror of all of my undeveloped ideas being suddenly tossed out the window gave me a sense of urgency. It reminds me of... now.
Writers Cramp
There were a number of good things happening on the Fluff forum around late 2013, chief among them being Scalenex's collection of novellas. My initial reading of them was "no way - these lizards are just too human and relateable". I quickly came to learn that you need relateable characters to write engaging fiction, but I also learnt that the author can present his characters any-the-heck way he wants. There are no rules. I decided that my cartoon characters could tell a story, so I dipped my toe in the water. With a
full length novel.
That wasn't my plan. I wanted to do a "1940s Saturday Morning Serial" style approach (as George Lucas's had used in
Episode 4 - A New Hope). There were going to be semi regular instalments of linked, but quite complete story units. I chose to use a combination of
road movie and
quest plotlines because I knew those genres were never hurt by being completely aimless - as long as the
rules of cool or
funny prevailed.
Next time I get into the writers thread (
Writers' Wretreat or Crytics' Crypt?) I will try to explain why it was legitimate to use 9000+ words in order to justify recycling just ONE out of context comic as an illustration. Which I must have done about 6 times.
Anyway, aimless gave way to actual plot ideas, and I had to do frequent revisions of the first few chapters. While this was WIP, not a lot of comic series were produced, but I kept the pencil sharp doing story illustrations and mocking my dear cold blooded fellows in Spawning of Bob and Friends.
to show how to make them cute.
