Monday, February 22, 2010
Episode 33: Plan B
Iris isn't finished yet things are looking up for Brigadier! Right? Chapter One will end this week but I have no idea what I'm going to do for Chapter 2. No I mean I have it written out I just don't know if I want to take a week off in between chapters or what. I most likely will chill for a week after Chapter One is finished but I don't want to leave y'all completely without something so yeah.
Oh, and you should check this link out. I think you'll like it.
Thank you guys for voting. I'm now in the top 200 on The Webcomic List. Y'all are inching closer to those bonus comics so KEEP VOTING!!!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Episode 32: Still Boned
I feel bad for Brigadier. Since he's been introduced to this comic not a single good think has happened to him. He's screwed up an espionage mission, got beat up and now he's being fired with Superhero Immunities being removed (Immunities like if he breaks a building crime fighting normally he wouldn't have to pay for the building. Now he does.)
For those of you who faithfully read I've noticed the updates have been a sliding Mon-Thur-Friday thing lately. Sorry, first exams this week. I'm getting you three comics a week still. The days and times just aren't normalized yet. That's all it will get regular eventually. Also thank you guys for voting. I'm now in the top 200 on The Webcomic List. Y'all are inching closer to those bonus comics so KEEP VOTING!!!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Episode 31: Null and Void
This is the most unnerved we've seen Iris and strangely the calmest Lysander's been. And what happened to Brigadier while all this conversation is taking place?
Something you may have noticed is my lack of backgrounds in these last couple of pages. It isn't so much a laziness thing as a "I-don't-see-the-point" thing. Just like in Super Drama I draw backgrounds to show where you are when the scene changes, but after that I just use the background color. The walls are still gold and there are still chairs so obviously they are still in the Mayor's office. Right now the focus should be on the characters and their dialouge and right now where they are isn't all that important. So...yeah just thought I'd point that out.
See you Wednesday.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Mansion Minutes #5: The Seven Projects of SUTB Comics
In the site redesign I discussed earlier I had plans to make some comics and do some other stuff as well. I have narrowed down everything to seven projects here are their names but not what they are.
Project Aries
Project Cepheus
Project Orion
Project Cygnus
Project Vega
Project Corona
Project Regulus
I will say four of the projects having something to do with comics and the four comic project names have something to do with their future comic counterpart. For example: Project Corona. Corona is Latin for "crown". The main character of Singularity is Regent Royals. A regal enough name and a royal usually wears a crown. So Project Corona is the codename for Singularity during the redesign. Tada.
You can attempt to guess the others if you'd like and I'll post logos and character arts of the comics/other stuff as I create it.
Project Aries
Project Cepheus
Project Orion
Project Cygnus
Project Vega
Project Corona
Project Regulus
I will say four of the projects having something to do with comics and the four comic project names have something to do with their future comic counterpart. For example: Project Corona. Corona is Latin for "crown". The main character of Singularity is Regent Royals. A regal enough name and a royal usually wears a crown. So Project Corona is the codename for Singularity during the redesign. Tada.
You can attempt to guess the others if you'd like and I'll post logos and character arts of the comics/other stuff as I create it.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Mansion Minutes #4: The Future of SUTBComics
SUTBComics stands for Set Up The Bomb Comics. COMICS. Plural.
Yes that means Singularity is not the only comic I will do. Yes that means I have plans to redesign the site again. Yes that means I have a bunch of other things I want to put on SUTBComics.
No that does not mean any of this is happening soon.
Y'see the size of this move is...well huge. Singularity likely would cease to be the front page of SUTBComic.com (again) and probably move back to hero.sutbcomic.com or singularity.sutbcomic.com or something I don't know yet. There are certain steps that would be taken for this to happen.
1. I would like to be back to a daily Singularity update first.
2. I would need to have about a 20 page buffer on Singularity ready to roll while I redesign.
3. All the comics that I plan to post will have at least a five update thick buffer.
So yeah. This is a move that is a bit down the line and most likely will happen AFTER I start advertising so that's a concern too. This requires a bit of work and effort that I sincerely hope I can put into it because these are great comics and they've been good to me. The least I can do for them is to be good to them.
But here's a little preview of what I'm thinking about doing.
1. Super Drama-Probably my favorite thing I've ever drawn and I love these characters and feel a closer connection with them than anything I've ever created in my life. I want them to come back and they will. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 11/10
2. File Not Found-My first webcomic ever drawn. It was a gaming comic and it provided alot of the background for Super Drama's characters. The main character Nick Turbowing (not that one) was the basis of the character Leo Maxwell while his little brother Lawerence Turbowing became the design for SD's Nick Turbowing. While I'm not sure how crazy I am about doing a gaming comic I want to bring FNF back. For nostalgia sake. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 7/10
3. Nocturnal Transmissions- The story is great the characters are great and are completely independent of my previous works. I didn't give it a fair shake in the 24 Hour Challenge. I like it's chances of coming back. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 9/10
4. Roswell Invasion- My Tecmo Super Bowl coach mode challenge. It will be at the redesign. Hell it'll be here before then.
Some past works that definitely won't be around include Coming Soon, Assassins Anonymous and Set Up The Bomb. Naturally, Singularity will still be around. A tenative schedule would probably have Singularity at MWF, A Comic on Tuesday and a Comic on Thursday and a Comic on Saturday with the Roswell Invasion playing on Sundays. But we shall see. Oh and the individual pieces of the puzzle may go up before the finished product. Just an FYI.
Yes that means Singularity is not the only comic I will do. Yes that means I have plans to redesign the site again. Yes that means I have a bunch of other things I want to put on SUTBComics.
No that does not mean any of this is happening soon.
Y'see the size of this move is...well huge. Singularity likely would cease to be the front page of SUTBComic.com (again) and probably move back to hero.sutbcomic.com or singularity.sutbcomic.com or something I don't know yet. There are certain steps that would be taken for this to happen.
1. I would like to be back to a daily Singularity update first.
2. I would need to have about a 20 page buffer on Singularity ready to roll while I redesign.
3. All the comics that I plan to post will have at least a five update thick buffer.
So yeah. This is a move that is a bit down the line and most likely will happen AFTER I start advertising so that's a concern too. This requires a bit of work and effort that I sincerely hope I can put into it because these are great comics and they've been good to me. The least I can do for them is to be good to them.
But here's a little preview of what I'm thinking about doing.
1. Super Drama-Probably my favorite thing I've ever drawn and I love these characters and feel a closer connection with them than anything I've ever created in my life. I want them to come back and they will. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 11/10
2. File Not Found-My first webcomic ever drawn. It was a gaming comic and it provided alot of the background for Super Drama's characters. The main character Nick Turbowing (not that one) was the basis of the character Leo Maxwell while his little brother Lawerence Turbowing became the design for SD's Nick Turbowing. While I'm not sure how crazy I am about doing a gaming comic I want to bring FNF back. For nostalgia sake. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 7/10
3. Nocturnal Transmissions- The story is great the characters are great and are completely independent of my previous works. I didn't give it a fair shake in the 24 Hour Challenge. I like it's chances of coming back. RETURN LIKELIHOOD: 9/10
4. Roswell Invasion- My Tecmo Super Bowl coach mode challenge. It will be at the redesign. Hell it'll be here before then.
Some past works that definitely won't be around include Coming Soon, Assassins Anonymous and Set Up The Bomb. Naturally, Singularity will still be around. A tenative schedule would probably have Singularity at MWF, A Comic on Tuesday and a Comic on Thursday and a Comic on Saturday with the Roswell Invasion playing on Sundays. But we shall see. Oh and the individual pieces of the puzzle may go up before the finished product. Just an FYI.
Mansion Minutes #3: Disappeared
That picture rather nicely sums up just where I've been these last couple of days. After a great night of Improv at Wooten Hall me and the Comedy Club ate pizza and watch some movies and relaxed until about 2am. Aaaaand that's when it hit me.
"Shit! I have a Data Analysis exam tomorrow!"
And then it hit me again
"Damnit! I have Business Calculus homework due tomorrow!"
And then it hit me an unprecedented third time
"FUCK! I HAVEN'T DRAWN SINGULARITY YET!"
A subnote about not having slept in approaching 30 hours was also bothering me so I went to bed with the intention of waking up at 6am. My alarm didn't sound until 9. Forced into skipping Accounting to do Calculus I then had to skip Calculus to prep for my Data Analysis exam. I think I did really good on it so it was/should be totally worth it. Buuut...well I don't really understand anything in calculus at all and that's a problem since I'm quickly approaching the first exam. Well I was going to get tutoring on Thursday at noon so I went to bed and got all ready for tutoring and then Denton threw me for a loop.
It snowed. In fact when it was all said and done it was the most snow Denton had in history. (12.5" breaking a previous record of 12" and the previous Feb. 11 record of 1.5") So school gets canceled, my tutoring ends, and my astronomy lab which I went over hell and high water to schedule...canceled.
So ideal time to work on the comic right? WRONG! IT'S SNOWING! IN TEXAS!! So I took part in several epic snowball wars including one at the Denton castle in which about 300 people lined up in rank and file and charged at each other. The rest of the day was spent sliding down hills, back and forward flipping in the snow and knocking snow of my baby, Gwen (2000 Nissan Maxima. Friend of mine named it Gwen.) I lamented alot about soaked clothes but eh whatever. It was completely worth it. Another Mansion post is due soon about the future of SUTBComics but that can wait for a second.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Episode 29: I Wish The Titles Were Interesting Again
Lysander's speech is the only reason I can think people would live in cities like Gotham where the Joker runs around blowing shit up every ten seconds. As long as Batman will
save them they don't care.
A city with a crime rate as high as Gotham should be a fucking ghost town. Chapter One is rapidly coming to a close and I'm excited about Chapter Two. I think I may do a little one week/three comic intermission in between Chapters for the first week of March. The first one will answer some questions that have come up with chapter one and the other two...Dunno what they will be.
See you Wednesday.
Oh and congratualations to the New Orleans Saints on their first Super Bowl title
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Super Bowl Champions
Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on winning Super Bowl XLIV.
Colts, hey tough luck but you had a hell of a season and played a hell of a game. Heads up blue guys, take pride in this, a season many thought y'all wouldn't see the playoffs.
Colts, hey tough luck but you had a hell of a season and played a hell of a game. Heads up blue guys, take pride in this, a season many thought y'all wouldn't see the playoffs.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Episode 28: Termination
I meant show up Saturday for an epic plot changing blah blah blah. Okay I fucked up. But hey my car is fixed! I mean sure that's 530 bucks down the FUCKING DRAIN but at least I don't have to worry about being stranded in the middle of nowhere when I drive anymore. But yeah sorry about not posting this on Friday. At least next week is pretty much drawn and inked. I better finish Monday tonight though. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and I am willing to bet I'm not going to get much accomplished after kickoff.
Still playing with this art style. See ya later. Go Colts.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Mansion Minutes #2: Mean Green and Race Cards
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST IS PRETTY FUCKING LONG. AFTER THE UNT PART IT TALKS ABOUT RACE IN MY PAST COMIC ENDEAVORS! SO YEAH.
Okay first thing is first. UNT beat Florida Atlantic. We're in a fucking logjam for second place in the Sun Belt conference and we really fucked ourselves by getting swept by Arkansas State and I know that will hurt us come tourney time. The top three teams get bye and right now that's Middle Tennesee, Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic. Bad news we lost to MidTenn and ASU. Good news, UNT is currently the sixth seed meaning 1) we host the first round game at the Super Pit in Denton 2) We would play the 11th place team round one which right now is the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks who we drubbed earlier this season and 3) The winner of the 6-11 game plays the third seed which is FAU who we just slaughtered. So first two rounds? Not worried. Am I concerned we'll lose in the Conference Championship game again? Eh. A little.
Okay on two thing number two and it's something that is a little more...eh, risque? I am of course talking about the race card. Now if you read this for God's sake please read the whole thing and try not to get to up in arms. I'm just noticing something okay.
Okay, lemme lay it out there. I'm black. No. The little characters I drew to represent me in this last two journals aren't some kind of silly avatar. That's me. I wear glasses, I always wear that hat I wear the Fry-style-black-long-sleeve-over-other-shirt thing frequent, I have three stupid chin hairs and can't grow a damn thing more to save my life and well you get the idea. Now this in the past has shocked people who don't know me as Eric Merritt: North Texas Sophomore but know me as Eric Merritt: Webcomic Artist. Why? Well as a friend of mine pointed out during my Super Drama run my main characters tend to be white. In fact I went through EVERY comic series I've ever drawn. You can't count the number of African-American, Black (or as controversially placed on the Census) Negro, characters ON ONE HAND.
Lexington Houston of Soul Siphon. The main character of Assassins Anonymous (forgot his name) Zachary Powell from the Super Drama series and of course, Regent Royals from Singularity. Now of those, only two were main characters. The other characters? White with the exception of Toshi in Coming Soon who was (admittedly) a trope heavy Asian. (Not to the point of racism but to the point where he wasn't an interesting/believable character) and I guess technically Roulette counts as Myanmar but he's a red panda so eh? Other than that. Overwhelmingly white. For people piece this together, that's right. MIDNIGHT MASTER IS NOT BLACK. I have no idea what the fuck Lysander is to be honest. This bothered my dad a little when I first started out as he asked me "Where are all the brothers?" Now this was during the Coming Soon era, which was the two guys on a couch story but a little dumber I blatantly told my dad I didn't want to write dumb black characters. But it made it okay to write a dumb white guy and a trope heavy Asian? Techincally the answer is no, it's not okay but it gets done and whether it's right or wrong or what's the line is something Family Guy challenges with every episode. Not my battle. Not my point. But it got me thinking about two things.
1) Why didn't I write black characters?
2) Why should I be pressured to write black characters?
Yes this is a LONG post. Sorry.
Okay question 1: Why didn't I write black characters. Well I guess it was my perception of people in general back then as far as the media goes. Okay. Let's not bullshit here: I was pretty atypical of the African-American/Black guys I knew in high school when I started drawing. I was a member of the debate team, I held proper usage of the English language in highest of regards, dancing and rapping were not my forte, I was not very athletic and I was a huge fucking Mario/Sonic/Pokemon nerd. Should any of that mattered? Eh maybe. Maybe not BUT what it did do was create a disconnect between me and black folk at Bowman/Williams/Plano East (middle/9-10/11-12 schools respectively).
I was labeled nerdy and (what pissed me off the most to be called) white. Not that I have anything against white people but to be disowned by my race (or a select few of them in school) because I wasn't a fucking stereotype was annoying. So I felt that I knew more about the nerdy kind of guy or that person so I could write that better. Case in point, my first comic File Not Found--gaming comic. Cast? All white. Why? I didn't know any brothers at, I think I was at Williams when I did FNF, who sat around playing RPGs or anything like that. They were, for the most part-not all but mostly, trying to be ghetto in Plano.
Okay pause. For those of you who don't know my hometown is Plano, Texas. The median income of Plano is alomst $85,000. Ghetto we ain't. We were ranked the wealthiest suburb with more than a quarter million residents in the FUCKING USA in 2008 for fuck's sake. Not the DFW area. Not the state of Texas. THE ENTIRE FUCKING NATION. Now I will temper this and say the city is broken down East, Central and West and the West families make on average $100k or so and the East families average around 65k-70k with Central making up the middle group. But yeah, side note over. The point is I understood 1) I wasn't poor 2) It was fucking ridiculous to act like I was from a poor place 3) The majority of the black males at East acted in such a manner so I didn't associate with them. That simple.
Now this created a bit of a Uncle Ruckus side of me where I didn't like black folk acting ghetto in THE FUCKING RICHEST SUBURB IN THE NATION. But that's what was there so I stayed away from alot of African American influenced things. BET? Hip-hop and R&B? Soul Plane? To this day I don't listen to any music that was created after I was born. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five? Yes. Michael Jackson? Yes. Stevie Wonder? Yes. Earth Wind and Fire? HELL FUCKING YES.
Who the fuck is Nelly? Lil Bow Wow? Lil Wayne? My parents called me Lil 'E (I'm a junior you see) and I fucking hated it. Who the fuck wants to be little anything? Against rambling. There was a disconnect. I didn't feel I could relate to black people therefore I wouldn't be able to write a compelling black character and so I didn't even try. White characters in comics are allowed to run the gamut to be whatever. A black character like me? Didn't make sense to me at the time. No one would read it. No one would find it believeable. So they weren't black. I don't know shit about Russian culture. A Russian character would end up like Toshi did, trope heavy because that's all I would be able to run on.
When I did start debuting black characters with Zach in Super Drama (AA didn't get much attention. Neither did Soul Siphon) people automatically assumed Zach was my Author Avatar.
Me: Why?
People: Well he's the only black guy.
Okay. You are partially right. Zach was me. But so was EVERYONE that wasn't Victoria in Super Drama. Leo was my rational desire to be normal. Zach are was my happy-let's-have-fun side. Nick was my hopeless romantic (who unlike me gets the girl) and Dexter was the side of me that can be a be of a prick, arrogant snob and really only gives a damn about (my/him)self. Roulette was my fascination with things just being odd and really out of place. So he was my love for comedy which made since why he was Zach's pet.
But that leads me to my second question: Should I be pressured into making black characters? The majority of comic book artists and characters are white. Spiderman. Stan Lee. Jack Kirby The Incredible Hulk. Batman. Whoever the fuck draws DC Comics (I'm a Marvel Guy). White. There are only two black comic artists I can think of off the top of my head: Ray Billingsley and Arron McGruder. Their two comics are Curtis and The Boondocks respectively. Their cast? Predominantly black. So when I tell you, at times I feel there is a slight pressure to have more black characters, don't say "Oh that's only something white comic artists worry about" because that's bullshit. But I mean should I just create black characters to create them?
The answer of course is no. Brigadier Battery, while he takes elements from the mannerisms of my great grandmother and grandfather, I made him white. Why? Because that's how I view him. When the concept of Brigadier first came to mind he was white. I couldn't have made him black/Asian/Canadian if I wanted to. The same goes with Regent. Since the Fallout days, that character was going to be black. Was he going to be some hip hop singing, troped out, pants sagging athlete? No. Was he going to be a revolutionary Black Panther, Black Power character? No. But he was going to be black? Yeah. What kind of black guy. I dunno. Normal?
It's the same fucking thing we hear in the media all the time about stereotypes and blah blah blah. Black characters by in large tend to play out some sort of role. They're the Revolutionist (Huey Freeman), they're the gangster (holy shit not enough space, but Riley Freeman for brevity), they're the man that left his wife for a sexier younger woman (Pick a Tyler Perry movie and blindfold yourself. Throw a dart. You found him). What about me? I'm just a guy who happens to be black. That's what Regent is. Yes he's an athlete (not very good one but he made the team. Oh by the way spoilers). He plays videogames. He's just a college student. Like I've said before to people asking me about the comic or my little brother: Regent Royals is basically me in the situations he's in. There's a little attitude variances (at times we're a little more confident than the other. He's a little more business minded than I am and he has a beard the lucky bastard) but that's that him being black is just a part of him and really shouldn't be a point one way or another.
But it is
WHY? I dunno. I guess the question I was answering was why are the majority of the character you create white. The answer is just because they are. I don't have a fucking chart and said oh shit this guy needs to be white or this guy needs to be old. Now yes, my main characters across the board are males around my age. Because that's what I know. I couldn't write a female lead because that's not my experience. I wouldn't grab female readers because she'd just come off as artificial. All I can promise with Iris is that she's not fanservice (sorry guys). But is she secretly the star of the show. No, she is a self-describe talent scout. Is that the depth to her character? Eh, more or less. Is her character that (shallow/deep) because I can't write women? No it's more because of what her role in the comic is. She is a talent scout and an agent. Her job is business. Don't expect her to be this motherly person. She is about the business of staying in business. That's what she does. Lysander is a politician. He cares about his constituents but knows he can't serve them unless he gets reelected. So best believe he's going to do what will get him reelected. Brigadier is an old man who all he knows is being a hero. Why is he a hero? You'll find out later. But that's his motivation to help people. And Regent is a college student. He's about graduating, making money and having a good time all the while. Boom. That's it. The races and genders aren't what makes them that. They made themselves that. You hear writers say it all the time "I didn't write the story, the story told itself to me"
Guys I won't lie: there really is not much of Singularity written down in pen on paper. An INCREDIBLE amount of this story is made up on the fly. Big example you've already seen: Midnight Master wasn't going to be a supervillian. He was just going to be an ordinary thug. But suddenly my mind said, "No this story's going a different direction." I don't control this shit. It happens. My mind turns on with a character or plot device or whatever. I write it down so I don't forget and go from there. Do I have chapter two written out? I have major plot points in my head and I think and outline somewhere with my stuff from last semester but storyboards? Nope. I storyboard about a week in advance. Yeah, very rarely do I have an iron-clad storyboard drawn for a comic more than two to three days in advanced. Fact.
So long story short, the character are whatever they are because they couldn't be anything else. And well fuck if you read the whole damn thing you're pretty fucking awesome.
Now I need to go draw tonight's Singularity.
UNT, Until Next Time
Eric W. Merritt
Okay first thing is first. UNT beat Florida Atlantic. We're in a fucking logjam for second place in the Sun Belt conference and we really fucked ourselves by getting swept by Arkansas State and I know that will hurt us come tourney time. The top three teams get bye and right now that's Middle Tennesee, Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic. Bad news we lost to MidTenn and ASU. Good news, UNT is currently the sixth seed meaning 1) we host the first round game at the Super Pit in Denton 2) We would play the 11th place team round one which right now is the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks who we drubbed earlier this season and 3) The winner of the 6-11 game plays the third seed which is FAU who we just slaughtered. So first two rounds? Not worried. Am I concerned we'll lose in the Conference Championship game again? Eh. A little.
Okay on two thing number two and it's something that is a little more...eh, risque? I am of course talking about the race card. Now if you read this for God's sake please read the whole thing and try not to get to up in arms. I'm just noticing something okay.
Okay, lemme lay it out there. I'm black. No. The little characters I drew to represent me in this last two journals aren't some kind of silly avatar. That's me. I wear glasses, I always wear that hat I wear the Fry-style-black-long-sleeve-over-other-shirt thing frequent, I have three stupid chin hairs and can't grow a damn thing more to save my life and well you get the idea. Now this in the past has shocked people who don't know me as Eric Merritt: North Texas Sophomore but know me as Eric Merritt: Webcomic Artist. Why? Well as a friend of mine pointed out during my Super Drama run my main characters tend to be white. In fact I went through EVERY comic series I've ever drawn. You can't count the number of African-American, Black (or as controversially placed on the Census) Negro, characters ON ONE HAND.
Lexington Houston of Soul Siphon. The main character of Assassins Anonymous (forgot his name) Zachary Powell from the Super Drama series and of course, Regent Royals from Singularity. Now of those, only two were main characters. The other characters? White with the exception of Toshi in Coming Soon who was (admittedly) a trope heavy Asian. (Not to the point of racism but to the point where he wasn't an interesting/believable character) and I guess technically Roulette counts as Myanmar but he's a red panda so eh? Other than that. Overwhelmingly white. For people piece this together, that's right. MIDNIGHT MASTER IS NOT BLACK. I have no idea what the fuck Lysander is to be honest. This bothered my dad a little when I first started out as he asked me "Where are all the brothers?" Now this was during the Coming Soon era, which was the two guys on a couch story but a little dumber I blatantly told my dad I didn't want to write dumb black characters. But it made it okay to write a dumb white guy and a trope heavy Asian? Techincally the answer is no, it's not okay but it gets done and whether it's right or wrong or what's the line is something Family Guy challenges with every episode. Not my battle. Not my point. But it got me thinking about two things.
1) Why didn't I write black characters?
2) Why should I be pressured to write black characters?
Yes this is a LONG post. Sorry.
Okay question 1: Why didn't I write black characters. Well I guess it was my perception of people in general back then as far as the media goes. Okay. Let's not bullshit here: I was pretty atypical of the African-American/Black guys I knew in high school when I started drawing. I was a member of the debate team, I held proper usage of the English language in highest of regards, dancing and rapping were not my forte, I was not very athletic and I was a huge fucking Mario/Sonic/Pokemon nerd. Should any of that mattered? Eh maybe. Maybe not BUT what it did do was create a disconnect between me and black folk at Bowman/Williams/Plano East (middle/9-10/11-12 schools respectively).
I was labeled nerdy and (what pissed me off the most to be called) white. Not that I have anything against white people but to be disowned by my race (or a select few of them in school) because I wasn't a fucking stereotype was annoying. So I felt that I knew more about the nerdy kind of guy or that person so I could write that better. Case in point, my first comic File Not Found--gaming comic. Cast? All white. Why? I didn't know any brothers at, I think I was at Williams when I did FNF, who sat around playing RPGs or anything like that. They were, for the most part-not all but mostly, trying to be ghetto in Plano.
Okay pause. For those of you who don't know my hometown is Plano, Texas. The median income of Plano is alomst $85,000. Ghetto we ain't. We were ranked the wealthiest suburb with more than a quarter million residents in the FUCKING USA in 2008 for fuck's sake. Not the DFW area. Not the state of Texas. THE ENTIRE FUCKING NATION. Now I will temper this and say the city is broken down East, Central and West and the West families make on average $100k or so and the East families average around 65k-70k with Central making up the middle group. But yeah, side note over. The point is I understood 1) I wasn't poor 2) It was fucking ridiculous to act like I was from a poor place 3) The majority of the black males at East acted in such a manner so I didn't associate with them. That simple.
Now this created a bit of a Uncle Ruckus side of me where I didn't like black folk acting ghetto in THE FUCKING RICHEST SUBURB IN THE NATION. But that's what was there so I stayed away from alot of African American influenced things. BET? Hip-hop and R&B? Soul Plane? To this day I don't listen to any music that was created after I was born. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five? Yes. Michael Jackson? Yes. Stevie Wonder? Yes. Earth Wind and Fire? HELL FUCKING YES.
Who the fuck is Nelly? Lil Bow Wow? Lil Wayne? My parents called me Lil 'E (I'm a junior you see) and I fucking hated it. Who the fuck wants to be little anything? Against rambling. There was a disconnect. I didn't feel I could relate to black people therefore I wouldn't be able to write a compelling black character and so I didn't even try. White characters in comics are allowed to run the gamut to be whatever. A black character like me? Didn't make sense to me at the time. No one would read it. No one would find it believeable. So they weren't black. I don't know shit about Russian culture. A Russian character would end up like Toshi did, trope heavy because that's all I would be able to run on.
When I did start debuting black characters with Zach in Super Drama (AA didn't get much attention. Neither did Soul Siphon) people automatically assumed Zach was my Author Avatar.
Me: Why?
People: Well he's the only black guy.
Okay. You are partially right. Zach was me. But so was EVERYONE that wasn't Victoria in Super Drama. Leo was my rational desire to be normal. Zach are was my happy-let's-have-fun side. Nick was my hopeless romantic (who unlike me gets the girl) and Dexter was the side of me that can be a be of a prick, arrogant snob and really only gives a damn about (my/him)self. Roulette was my fascination with things just being odd and really out of place. So he was my love for comedy which made since why he was Zach's pet.
But that leads me to my second question: Should I be pressured into making black characters? The majority of comic book artists and characters are white. Spiderman. Stan Lee. Jack Kirby The Incredible Hulk. Batman. Whoever the fuck draws DC Comics (I'm a Marvel Guy). White. There are only two black comic artists I can think of off the top of my head: Ray Billingsley and Arron McGruder. Their two comics are Curtis and The Boondocks respectively. Their cast? Predominantly black. So when I tell you, at times I feel there is a slight pressure to have more black characters, don't say "Oh that's only something white comic artists worry about" because that's bullshit. But I mean should I just create black characters to create them?
The answer of course is no. Brigadier Battery, while he takes elements from the mannerisms of my great grandmother and grandfather, I made him white. Why? Because that's how I view him. When the concept of Brigadier first came to mind he was white. I couldn't have made him black/Asian/Canadian if I wanted to. The same goes with Regent. Since the Fallout days, that character was going to be black. Was he going to be some hip hop singing, troped out, pants sagging athlete? No. Was he going to be a revolutionary Black Panther, Black Power character? No. But he was going to be black? Yeah. What kind of black guy. I dunno. Normal?
It's the same fucking thing we hear in the media all the time about stereotypes and blah blah blah. Black characters by in large tend to play out some sort of role. They're the Revolutionist (Huey Freeman), they're the gangster (holy shit not enough space, but Riley Freeman for brevity), they're the man that left his wife for a sexier younger woman (Pick a Tyler Perry movie and blindfold yourself. Throw a dart. You found him). What about me? I'm just a guy who happens to be black. That's what Regent is. Yes he's an athlete (not very good one but he made the team. Oh by the way spoilers). He plays videogames. He's just a college student. Like I've said before to people asking me about the comic or my little brother: Regent Royals is basically me in the situations he's in. There's a little attitude variances (at times we're a little more confident than the other. He's a little more business minded than I am and he has a beard the lucky bastard) but that's that him being black is just a part of him and really shouldn't be a point one way or another.
But it is
WHY? I dunno. I guess the question I was answering was why are the majority of the character you create white. The answer is just because they are. I don't have a fucking chart and said oh shit this guy needs to be white or this guy needs to be old. Now yes, my main characters across the board are males around my age. Because that's what I know. I couldn't write a female lead because that's not my experience. I wouldn't grab female readers because she'd just come off as artificial. All I can promise with Iris is that she's not fanservice (sorry guys). But is she secretly the star of the show. No, she is a self-describe talent scout. Is that the depth to her character? Eh, more or less. Is her character that (shallow/deep) because I can't write women? No it's more because of what her role in the comic is. She is a talent scout and an agent. Her job is business. Don't expect her to be this motherly person. She is about the business of staying in business. That's what she does. Lysander is a politician. He cares about his constituents but knows he can't serve them unless he gets reelected. So best believe he's going to do what will get him reelected. Brigadier is an old man who all he knows is being a hero. Why is he a hero? You'll find out later. But that's his motivation to help people. And Regent is a college student. He's about graduating, making money and having a good time all the while. Boom. That's it. The races and genders aren't what makes them that. They made themselves that. You hear writers say it all the time "I didn't write the story, the story told itself to me"
Guys I won't lie: there really is not much of Singularity written down in pen on paper. An INCREDIBLE amount of this story is made up on the fly. Big example you've already seen: Midnight Master wasn't going to be a supervillian. He was just going to be an ordinary thug. But suddenly my mind said, "No this story's going a different direction." I don't control this shit. It happens. My mind turns on with a character or plot device or whatever. I write it down so I don't forget and go from there. Do I have chapter two written out? I have major plot points in my head and I think and outline somewhere with my stuff from last semester but storyboards? Nope. I storyboard about a week in advance. Yeah, very rarely do I have an iron-clad storyboard drawn for a comic more than two to three days in advanced. Fact.
So long story short, the character are whatever they are because they couldn't be anything else. And well fuck if you read the whole damn thing you're pretty fucking awesome.
Now I need to go draw tonight's Singularity.
UNT, Until Next Time
Eric W. Merritt
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Mansion Minutes #1: One of Those Days
You know how some days you got it and others you don't? This was a day where I didn't.
So today started with me finishing the Singularity at about noon. The coloring probably would have be done at around 5am if I didn't fall asleep at 2am. So I finish coloring to comic and then realize I've missed Accounting and I fall asleep again after posting Singularity causing me to miss Calculus. I then proceed to be late to Data Analysis and when I got to class I discovered that I had left all my papers and my accordion file at home.
And I still haven't got my car fixed.
For those of you not following me on Facebook, the car situation cropped up on Saturday.
While I was driving back from Plano to Denton, all these random lights started flashing off and on my display. Needless to say I was scared a little shitless. Turns out the harmonic balancer of my car fell off and as a result my alternator belt had been rubbed smooth and as a FURTHER result I now no longer had anything charging my battery while driving.
Long story short today was jam packed of fail. I steal can believe just how off I was. Bah, well tomorrow is the Astronomy/Philosophy/English cycle of class and HOPEFULLY I will be a little more...with it. I sincerely hope so.
Episode 27: Louder Than Words
Oh, I colored the whole comic without using any fills. Well coloring this page proved exactly what I thought it would on the onset. It has potential to be a really good coloring style (evidence by Brigadier's pants and Iris's bow and the file cabinet) but it takes a while to color a whole page in. But I think I want to keep with this style to see if I can't get better with it. So I apologize if anyone is thrown off by the different coloring styles from comic to comic but I'm still trying to nail down a good style I like to see Singularity in.
Also as a minor note, that I probably should have left up to you guys to notice is Iris's bow. It changes with her mood (happy in panel 2 so it's perked up and has a light filter and down in panel 6, wilted looking etc.) The jewel was originally going to change colors but I like this better.
See you Friday with a BIG story changing shocking twist of epicness!
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