I’m getting the trio feeling of Poirot, Hastings and Japp.
Captain Carruthers makes a good Chief Inspector Japp, the competent inspector who is annoyed at the investigators higher ups have foisted on them.
The thing is, I feel both Lucas and Cadugan are equal in their investigative power for now, though that may tip once more of the story plays out. Cadigan has the edge in perceiving clues, Lucas more insights into the psychology, making them one of those rare teams that complement each other without one leading.
Chortles. This reminds me of when my two cats that hate each other accidentally sleep next to each other, and only realize it upon waking. (And there is no "no matter how much you love them" part to Cat X is annoying for Cat Y. )
Rich, I love how you gave them such similar expressions, underscoring the words. I’m curious how much (in general, not this particular example) is intentional with your storytelling being so visual. Is it integral to your work, or is it something you deliberately strive for? Your backgrounds, expressions, and other subtler details convey so much of the mood! Apologies if you’ve answered this before, if so, i can’t recall
I think visually. I don’t think in words. I often have to translate my thoughts, ideas, and feelings into words to communicate them. I try to draw the characters the way I think, so they feel the emotions and express them before the words come out. When I’m working on my own, that’s how I write YAFGC. I draw it and add the words after.
With t!, this is the first time YAFGC has started with a true script before I draw it. It’s not the first time I’ve drawn from a script (I’m not my 29 years of professional animation work), some of my old ComixBlog stuff was done from a script that someone else had written. So this story is odd for me. As I read the script, I see how they feel in my head while speaking and I try to capture that.
Another interesting note is how completely different the pacing of the story is to how my own solitary work. t! and I had long discussions about how the story would go and work out. We collaborated on gags early on and developed the clues, procession of the investigation. I relied heavily on t! because I’m not so comfortable with mysteries and how they need to be worked out in advance. But it was very much a co-written piece with t! working in details I suggested and wanted as well as his own.
But at this point, t! is writing scripts for each strip and I’m drawing them (and editing as I go if I feel it’d work better differently but it rarely needs altering ) So for the first time I feel a bit more… distanced from the characters.
Like normally I’m there with them watching and pushing and drawing as they play and act and experience and fight. But this story feels more like it’s already happened and I’m listening and watching from behind a window. NOT A BAD THING! It’s just a different experience.
When Rancourt and I did "The Little Librarian", we’d co-written/RPed a story which we recorded, and then I used it and expanded upon the core concepts on my own.
When I did "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Crossover" with Hogan and Ron, they basically gave me the start point and the end point and let me make up everything in between in my own way.
So this collaboration is more structured than I’m used to, it’s an interesting experience and probably benefits YAFGC a great deal.
-R
Having had the incomparable pleasure of writing with you on a handful of occasions, I’ve really been enjoying the heck out of the very recognizable difference in t!’s entire narrative voice, from your own. I’ve been trying to think of a way to sum it up in abstract, without too much dependence on specifics, and I return again and again to the notion that you employ a very relaxed narrative stride — even when you’re telling particularly grim events or dropping a sudden bomb on the flow of events, the *manner* in which you weave the narrative around these has a very "pastoral" quality, a way of flowing evenly, in legato, around the events it describes.
My own narrative style, in contrast, is a little corny, a little anthemic, a little "power metal." Friends once observed that you tell enormous, momentous moments in the soft, accessible voice of a bedtime storyteller, in YAFGC, whereas I tended to loft into King Diamond-esque howls and screeches to say "And then they had toast." If I had a gift, occasionally, for writing the beats themselves, where I fell down was that I lacked the patience to let them do their own unfolding, in their own time. I characterize your narrative style heavily by this strength of yours, and upon the way it dominates and pervades your work on YAFGC.
But then, there’s t!…whose narrative voice is markedly different, and fascinating…but so *different* from your own. He has elements of Holst, Varese, Stravinsky…he has elements of *Frank Zappa*, and I assure the gentle reader that I mean that as an emphatic compliment. He has an *impatience* with the speed of narrative that manifests in a sense that feels like "racing the beat" at times, and a sheer *busy* quality of detail and concurrent thread. There’s a *turbulence* to his writing style, eddys of violent, sudden detail popping up here and there, with an urgency that stands in contrast to your own "Yes, that’s back there too, if you noticed that" murmur of background threading. I note that your greatest narrative vehicle is body language and frame of panel; t!’s is dialogue, and there’s a new focus upon spoken word, and a certain tightness of payload to speech bubble, that’s unique to his presence in YAFGC.
I also notice a marked shift from character-forward storytelling to plot-forward storytelling. The Little Librarian, in contrast, was a character study that happened to advance the plot; you and I are character-centric storytellers, and if our many stories over the years together are any indication, we occasionally completely derail the plot for sake of indulging vivid and beautiful character moments. (Jupiter. First contact. Enough said!) I love this about us, I *relate* to this about us…but I love that t! brings such a sharp plot-forward eye to the collaboration, and I love the way that YAFGC, with the two of you working together, has acquired a strident quality, a "down to business" quality, and a density of narrative payload. There’s a lot of "fiber" in every bite, the experience of processing each strip is higher-effort for it (in an awesome way!), and as much as I love *your* narrative approach, I also really love his…and find the differences vivid, fascinating, and exciting.
My silence is reverent. One does not interrupt a symphony. I worry that these observations only serve to take one out of the moment you two are so brilliantly creating here, to shift focus from immersion to distanced reflection…but rest assured I am reflecting, just silently, and to myself.
You two make beautiful music together. Thank you, so much, for collaborating. It’s a thing of utter beauty.
I have to thank you for this elaborated Description and Insight.
I felt the change in Storytelling but could not get the grasp on what is the difference. Thanks to your and Richards explanation i know can see AND enjoy it.
Thank you a thousand times for these masterpieces of storytelling. Thank you Richard, Rancourt and t!
Shirley, the famed champion is depicted. Though later decks might include a certain kobold captain as the purest form of That Which You Did Not Expect.
While I noticed the card, your comment led me to the realization that we’ve seen, in-story, at least 4 situations of Lucas escaping death (the battle with Lewie, the war with everyone, the stoning, and the transformation. I don’t want to be more explicit in case a future reader sees this and reads spoilers. I feel safe mentioning he escaped, since, duhhh lol).
t! And T-Chall: without bicycles, i posit that it would not be a female ruler. *wanders off humming Queen’s lyrics "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike"
I’ve just done a quick web search for "ace of spades meaning" and gotten so many different results… An omen of ill fortune, but also a sign of good financial investments, a period of tremendous insight and mental clarity, a symbol of ancient mysteries, and I’m not even going into the other associations that are not directly related to card-reading.
Your Gnu tidbit to tide you over until the next page:
Yes, there are jokers in Gnu, they are the wildcards much like in other games. They are traditionally the jesters, but some modern versions have been replacing them with Jone and Captain Fang, to honour them as agents of chaos, but I digress.
The thing is, in Gnu, playing more than one joker is known as "jousting", a move that elite players like Shirley Marks could be trusted to make when their partner needed it most.
"Shirley, you joust!" soon became a common call at Gnu tables.
Pick up your copies of YAFGC Volumes 1 - 5 at our online store. Multi-book bundles and sketch editions available.
"Only an asshole would say that, and also you stole my line."
Looks like Lucas & Cadugan are going to play the roles of Sherlock & Watson.
I’m getting the trio feeling of Poirot, Hastings and Japp.
Captain Carruthers makes a good Chief Inspector Japp, the competent inspector who is annoyed at the investigators higher ups have foisted on them.
The thing is, I feel both Lucas and Cadugan are equal in their investigative power for now, though that may tip once more of the story plays out. Cadigan has the edge in perceiving clues, Lucas more insights into the psychology, making them one of those rare teams that complement each other without one leading.
I could kiss you so hard right now.
Much of what you say is correct.
t!
Chortles. This reminds me of when my two cats that hate each other accidentally sleep next to each other, and only realize it upon waking. (And there is no "no matter how much you love them" part to Cat X is annoying for Cat Y. )
Rich, I love how you gave them such similar expressions, underscoring the words. I’m curious how much (in general, not this particular example) is intentional with your storytelling being so visual. Is it integral to your work, or is it something you deliberately strive for? Your backgrounds, expressions, and other subtler details convey so much of the mood! Apologies if you’ve answered this before, if so, i can’t recall
I think visually. I don’t think in words. I often have to translate my thoughts, ideas, and feelings into words to communicate them. I try to draw the characters the way I think, so they feel the emotions and express them before the words come out. When I’m working on my own, that’s how I write YAFGC. I draw it and add the words after.
With t!, this is the first time YAFGC has started with a true script before I draw it. It’s not the first time I’ve drawn from a script (I’m not my 29 years of professional animation work), some of my old ComixBlog stuff was done from a script that someone else had written. So this story is odd for me. As I read the script, I see how they feel in my head while speaking and I try to capture that.
Another interesting note is how completely different the pacing of the story is to how my own solitary work. t! and I had long discussions about how the story would go and work out. We collaborated on gags early on and developed the clues, procession of the investigation. I relied heavily on t! because I’m not so comfortable with mysteries and how they need to be worked out in advance. But it was very much a co-written piece with t! working in details I suggested and wanted as well as his own.
But at this point, t! is writing scripts for each strip and I’m drawing them (and editing as I go if I feel it’d work better differently but it rarely needs altering ) So for the first time I feel a bit more… distanced from the characters.
Like normally I’m there with them watching and pushing and drawing as they play and act and experience and fight. But this story feels more like it’s already happened and I’m listening and watching from behind a window. NOT A BAD THING! It’s just a different experience.
When Rancourt and I did "The Little Librarian", we’d co-written/RPed a story which we recorded, and then I used it and expanded upon the core concepts on my own.
When I did "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Crossover" with Hogan and Ron, they basically gave me the start point and the end point and let me make up everything in between in my own way.
So this collaboration is more structured than I’m used to, it’s an interesting experience and probably benefits YAFGC a great deal.
-R
Having had the incomparable pleasure of writing with you on a handful of occasions, I’ve really been enjoying the heck out of the very recognizable difference in t!’s entire narrative voice, from your own. I’ve been trying to think of a way to sum it up in abstract, without too much dependence on specifics, and I return again and again to the notion that you employ a very relaxed narrative stride — even when you’re telling particularly grim events or dropping a sudden bomb on the flow of events, the *manner* in which you weave the narrative around these has a very "pastoral" quality, a way of flowing evenly, in legato, around the events it describes.
My own narrative style, in contrast, is a little corny, a little anthemic, a little "power metal." Friends once observed that you tell enormous, momentous moments in the soft, accessible voice of a bedtime storyteller, in YAFGC, whereas I tended to loft into King Diamond-esque howls and screeches to say "And then they had toast." If I had a gift, occasionally, for writing the beats themselves, where I fell down was that I lacked the patience to let them do their own unfolding, in their own time. I characterize your narrative style heavily by this strength of yours, and upon the way it dominates and pervades your work on YAFGC.
But then, there’s t!…whose narrative voice is markedly different, and fascinating…but so *different* from your own. He has elements of Holst, Varese, Stravinsky…he has elements of *Frank Zappa*, and I assure the gentle reader that I mean that as an emphatic compliment. He has an *impatience* with the speed of narrative that manifests in a sense that feels like "racing the beat" at times, and a sheer *busy* quality of detail and concurrent thread. There’s a *turbulence* to his writing style, eddys of violent, sudden detail popping up here and there, with an urgency that stands in contrast to your own "Yes, that’s back there too, if you noticed that" murmur of background threading. I note that your greatest narrative vehicle is body language and frame of panel; t!’s is dialogue, and there’s a new focus upon spoken word, and a certain tightness of payload to speech bubble, that’s unique to his presence in YAFGC.
I also notice a marked shift from character-forward storytelling to plot-forward storytelling. The Little Librarian, in contrast, was a character study that happened to advance the plot; you and I are character-centric storytellers, and if our many stories over the years together are any indication, we occasionally completely derail the plot for sake of indulging vivid and beautiful character moments. (Jupiter. First contact. Enough said!) I love this about us, I *relate* to this about us…but I love that t! brings such a sharp plot-forward eye to the collaboration, and I love the way that YAFGC, with the two of you working together, has acquired a strident quality, a "down to business" quality, and a density of narrative payload. There’s a lot of "fiber" in every bite, the experience of processing each strip is higher-effort for it (in an awesome way!), and as much as I love *your* narrative approach, I also really love his…and find the differences vivid, fascinating, and exciting.
My silence is reverent. One does not interrupt a symphony. I worry that these observations only serve to take one out of the moment you two are so brilliantly creating here, to shift focus from immersion to distanced reflection…but rest assured I am reflecting, just silently, and to myself.
You two make beautiful music together. Thank you, so much, for collaborating. It’s a thing of utter beauty.
I have to thank you for this elaborated Description and Insight.
I felt the change in Storytelling but could not get the grasp on what is the difference. Thanks to your and Richards explanation i know can see AND enjoy it.
Thank you a thousand times for these masterpieces of storytelling. Thank you Richard, Rancourt and t!
Except for the dead person.
oh… sorry… aaaaawkwaaaaard
If Cadugan wasn’t already spoken for, I’d ship them.
Like that has stopped people in the past (the shipping, I mean. Don’t cheat on your s.o.)
Oh, I think that there’s a strong possibility that Daisy, er, I mean Lilly, will end up going home with the Duke boys.
"You got your snark in my sarcasm!"
"Well, you got your sarcasm in my snark!"
SNARKASM
An orgasm of snarkiness
Uhoh… when first those two trails the same line of thought its time to duck and cover… 😮
Great minds think alike
and as my mother always added… "and fools seldom differ" 😉
(simultaneously:)
"Yes, but so do me and her."
"Yes, but so do me and him."
Beautiful, Rich.
Panel Three is where this story at last starts feeling to me like an honest-to-god whodunnit.
t!
Is it important that this card is also the death card?
It’s to confirm bicycles have not been invented yet.
t!
I wonder what picture they use for the joker?
Not a gnu, surely not! But you gnu that already.
Shirley, the famed champion is depicted. Though later decks might include a certain kobold captain as the purest form of That Which You Did Not Expect.
While I noticed the card, your comment led me to the realization that we’ve seen, in-story, at least 4 situations of Lucas escaping death (the battle with Lewie, the war with everyone, the stoning, and the transformation. I don’t want to be more explicit in case a future reader sees this and reads spoilers. I feel safe mentioning he escaped, since, duhhh lol).
t! And T-Chall: without bicycles, i posit that it would not be a female ruler. *wanders off humming Queen’s lyrics "I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike"
What, the Ace of Spades?
I’ve just done a quick web search for "ace of spades meaning" and gotten so many different results… An omen of ill fortune, but also a sign of good financial investments, a period of tremendous insight and mental clarity, a symbol of ancient mysteries, and I’m not even going into the other associations that are not directly related to card-reading.
I’d just like to close off one avenue of speculation:
Richard is not a Motorhead fan.
t!
Maybe he just needs to hear a gnu version 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxh492o2aM
🙂
Well, my personal interpretation was:
1: Ace is the easiest card to draw.
2: Spades are more difficult than diamonds but easier to recognize.
But then there is someone dead.
of course he escaped, he gnu what was coming….
That dagger-stare in the last panel is absolutely chilling!
Are we certain she isn’t one of Cads siblings his mom has left around?
Your Gnu tidbit to tide you over until the next page:
Yes, there are jokers in Gnu, they are the wildcards much like in other games. They are traditionally the jesters, but some modern versions have been replacing them with Jone and Captain Fang, to honour them as agents of chaos, but I digress.
The thing is, in Gnu, playing more than one joker is known as "jousting", a move that elite players like Shirley Marks could be trusted to make when their partner needed it most.
"Shirley, you joust!" soon became a common call at Gnu tables.
I just want you to bask in the knowledge that someone here understands why you chose the surname Marks.
Also : Damn!
t!
Dayummmm!!!! *bows low while applauding wildly*
The pair of them saying that together is great. They aren't all *that* similar I don't think, but they definitely have some things in common.