I blame Warren Ellis for this story. And Johnathan Hickman. And Brian Michael Bendis. And I thank them. In the last two years, they’ve been laying down some words that finally triggered in my mind to stop wishing and start doing. Specifically it’s been a combination of “now you tell ME a story” and “get off your ass and do it” and “commitment.” Since I started, and really committing to these scripts, I’ve never been nicer. Since I saw people read my stories and say, “you know, this doesn’t completely SUCK, Bob,” I’ve given myself the benefit of the doubt that I can pull this off.

I don’t think this story, Arcanopocrypha: the Journey Box, is the best. Of course, it’s not the new Watchmen, or anything other that a story that meets my emotional needs. Strangely, I don’t care if you like it… scratch that… I don’t care if you dislike it. Either it’s going to speak to you the way it does me, or it’s not. I hope it does but I’m ok if it doesn’t.

Since my work has become visible, I’m seeing a transformation - of how I see the world, how I see others, how I view myself versus what the world is, how others behave, what I truly am. I’ve always been bitter about the fact that we - humanity - could be so much more. Nicer in every way, but we deliberately choose not to. It’s very similar to the way people say things, “Like that may be so, but I believe in God so it must be wrong.” We COULD be a society that works towards the benefit of all. But we deliberately choose not it because something… else… something in OUR MINDS tells us to stop. Something in our minds is telling us to FAIL, but it’s our choice to listen.

It’s our choice to become authors and artists and creators of our future. Or we can choose to let others create the future for us, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s definitely less than optimal. But I’m no longer on the fence about this, and you’re welcome to come with me on this journey, but I’m going to expect you do deliver. And I want you to hold me to the same high standard.

Bob Kelly, April 2009

Via the Grinder krewe at Grinding.be - thanks, Xutraa.

A Child’s Odyssey… and Adult’s
From the very beginning, Ronald D. Moore’s BSG set off on a parallel path of the 70s show, and if you look at the two shows, I see one as the children’s version of BSG and the other the accurate one, comparing children’s nativity plays to the sick fucking Passion-of-the-Christ blood and gore. Even down to the Angelic version of characters in this intergalatic odyssey, there’s a kid’s version and the “warts and all” truth version.

BSG was ripe for it’s time: in moment of panic, America was about to declare war on the world to ensure tyrants never force others to obey them. There’s a kernel of painful truth in that last sentence. BSG similarly blockaded the characters into a metal box against a deadly environment. The metaphor wasn’t just spot-on, but obvious.

So, what does this mean to television?
I don’t know. I do believe that episodic TV that has no goal is mind is reaching an end. Personally, while I can’t stand 5 minute episodes like The Guild or Red vs. Blue - funny as they are, the story is never deep enough for me. And excellently written TV is now more rare, especially with the CSI/Numbers/Bones feces-infested shows that insult everyone who participates in them these days. Real science is hard. Real life is hard. Why don’t we EVER see the villain get away and the cold case grow cold, die, and be an bitter pill.

BSG gaves us plenty of bitter pills, from romances that should’ve and shouldn’t to betrayals to the worst suicide ever depicted on tv (Dualla’s). Depressing and horrific. But it made for a compelling story. End to end, BSG left it’s mark on television.

The Cautionary
The cautionary tale of BSG truly is what is the next phase of life. Where do we go from here? My opinion is we go forward. We build the robots. We make the AI. We do it early. We do it often. We do it prolifically. And we make a strong effort to not obliterate ourselves in the process. We do these things like the way we climb mountains: because we can, because it’s there. Moore’s cautionary also comes with the nature of man, questioning the religious effort of people. Having heard him speak a couple times, he’s as brazen as most people get about this.

But still we have billions of people working to perpetrate the myth machines. However, Moore has as well. Making Kara Thrace an angel - or a construct that fulfilled it’s mission and self-deleted, and implying that Caprica 6 and Baltar could see constructs/angels, means there’s a design in the chaos. It’s very ham-handed, deus ex machina, and my rational-minded viewpoint, disappointing. I believe he backed down from the wall of “your religions are lies” - spoon feeding myth-lovers a last minute backdoor so that “everything” end ok because a deity is looking out for these characters.

Time isn’t slowing or speeding with the Singularity/Posthuman Rise/Rapture of the Nerd - we’re just unable to adapt to the rate of change.

We’re knowingly obsolete.

And that’s ok.

Juan’s really beginning to cook with gas! Everyone who looks at his work responds with “HOLY SHIT Look at that!” It’s an amazing feeling, not just pride in my book, and not just that the art is great, but the fact that people react positive and sit down to read it.

I’m putting together an ashcan, which I’ll put here for a download as well.

I’m still looking for 2 more artists for the Ellis “Form a Band” - almost had one and then realized his artwork needed a different story. He’s great at portraits with big eyes, so I incorporated that strength into the story. Today, I finished the story Arcanopocrypha: Samael, and have it set for another experimental publishing on the net.

W00t.

I also love how the guy in the top right keeps smiling and the guy in the lower right is just trying to endure it.

From the awesome folks at Pink Tentacle.

I’m gonna quote him in full here:

Warren Ellis via Bad Signal, “Building the Imperfect Beast,” 08-12-2008

Okay, I’m pretty sure I did do this last year, but I
think it’s reconfigured in my head since then. So.

What you need is one writer and three artists.
Essentially, you decide to Form A Band.

And you decide up front that all the money from
the anthology comic is divided 4 ways equally.
This is for simplicity’s sake — people argue this
point with me all the time, but I have had
publishers say to my face that they avoid
anthologies, especially creator-owned ones,
because THE SUMS ARE TOO HARD. Keep
it simple. 25% for everybody.

What you’re going to do, you see, is one writer
writing three serials for three artists.

You’re doing a two-dollar book. That’s FELL format.
A 24pp unit, all on the same paperstock, including
covers. “Guts” of 20pp, with the “cover”, constituting
4pp, wrapped around it, yes?

Three 6pp episodes is 18 pages. Your cover and
inside front cover for indicia etc are 2pp. So that
leaves you 4pp, including the back cover, to play
with. Use them to interleave the serials, use them
as backmatter, let the artists take turns doing
full-page pieces, whatever.

The cover art is a rotating job between the three
artists.

Collect it every six months as a 128pp book (therefore
still splitting everything four ways) or collect each
serial on its own as best fitting (each book therefore
splitting 50/50). (As is blatantly obvious, but people
like to ask these questions instead of thinking for
themselves.)

Go and do it. I need something to read.

Form a band, boys and girls. Form a band.

OK, let’s look at the hurdles
1) I had to form a company so that my ass isn’t too liable as a self-publisher,
2) I had to create a legal agreement,
3) I’ve had to recruit artists (which I did find one - he’s great to work with, top notch.)
4) Some serious bitterness on my behalf, but oddly… I’m better for it. I’m a hell of a lot happier in this last six months.

Oh yeah, and I had to write the scripts because that is what I want to do, y’know, write stories. As opposed to be a publisher.

It’s six months later and I’m looking at now 5 finished scripts, one in final-final, four in finished draft stages, a ton of undeveloped ideas, and no artists on the horizons.

So, I’m putting this out to twitter-verse, and facebook, and all the other places once again.

I’m looking for few good artists. Actually, I’m looking for two good artists who will commit to the project. I know that royalty projects are difficult, but if you’re wanting to break in, and you love comics, here’s an opportunity for you. Please forward to any artists you know.

For us to shop this story, an artist needs to commit to the following:
1) Character Design - based on my descriptions, you will design the main characters of the story.
2) The first 5-6 pages of the story so that we can shop it to publishers. No page rate will be paid for these first few pages.

Legal Agreement Abridged
You and I co-own the characters. I own story. You own the character designs (what they look like) and receive royalties based on that design. If a different artist comes in later and redesigns the characters, you will still receive a smaller royalty amount for ownership. The story and characters are completely licensed to Heresy Research Labs to be repped - in short, HRL’s job is to get others to license and print the comics.

Here’s the detailed license. Feel free to print out and take to a lawyer.