[video] WARNING - CONTAINS FOURTHWALL. PLZ SEE PERMISSIONS POST
[OOC: DEAR MUNS OF VARIOUS CHARACTERS IN THIS POST. I double and triple checked your permissions posts and with the mods, but even so, if I have stepped out of line in mentioning "LOL BTW SO AND SO IS FICTIONAL IN THIS UNIVERSE", PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET ME KNOW ASAP SO I CAN EDIT THIS. I don't want to step on anyone's toes D:]
[Kyle is sitting in Lantern Haus, painting. What he's doing right now is a kind of impressionist version of the City skyline, lots of thick paint and stippling. Also, talking.]
I love the video function on these things. Sure, it's a pain when it comes on by accident - seriously, how sensitive are those buttons? - but it means that I can paint and make a post at the same time. And if I want I can have a construct play the audio posts of the day for me from across the room.
[Smiles, though he's pretty intent on his painting]
Anyway. First, sorry for disappearing off the network like that. I got a huge commission from Warner Brothers to do concept art for their upcoming Thundercats movie, as well as some matte paintings, and heck, even a couple toy designs. [he laughs a little] Basically I've been working my tail off. I'm pretty sure my wrists are going to fall right off but, hey, it pays the bills.
Anyway, part of the reason they're so keen to rush this out is that everyone's terrified that Lion-O or somebody's going to get ported in. So they want to get this movie out, make as much money as they can, and the try to pick something more obscure. That seems to be the name of the game here.
But that got me thinking...
"Man!", I said to myself. "We have a lot of people from fiction here." It's like this whole metafictional... thing... where like, I don't know, stuff we make up was actually true somewhere. Which I guess is possible because of many-worlds theory, and I know from experience that there's plenty of alternate universes. [he pauses, and taps his brush handle against the frame of the painting] But that's beside the point.
The actual point is: whenever someone who in this world is fictional gets Ported in, everything about them vanishes. Bam! Gone. I was looking for Star Wars DVDs the other day, and there's none. Transformers? Nope. Harry Potter books? Nada. It's all gone. Which is one reason it's been so hard for an artist like me to get work - my main way of paying the bills is stuff like concept art for toy and film companies, and most of them are shaking in their boots. Hasbro is on the verge of going under; all they have left is GI Joe, and the two big comic companies? They're falling back on the most obscure weird things you can think of, and they aren't doing well. In any case, we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars gone... but, much more importantly, comic book collections. Action figures. This stuff is people's childhoods, it means so much to them, and every time one of us shows up from a universe where it's real... all that vanishes.
[stops painting and turns around to face the camera]
This is just not cool, guys.
I'm not even meaning in the nerd rage kind of way, though there's a little of that. I mean... okay. Those of you who grew up on a version of Earth, during the 70's and 80's and 90's. Didn't this stuff have a huge influence on you as kids? Like, Star Wars, we all know Star Wars. I've seen the archive stuff of when Obi-Wan showed up. We had lightsaber battles in our backyards, we'd pretend we were Luke fighting the Empire. And you younger guys, who grew up in the 90's - I know that a lot of us hate the prequels, but it still got a whole new generation of kids believing in something bigger than they were. Believing in that one farmboy - no offense, Luke - could change the universe.
It's a concept I think that goes back way farther than our childhoods. Kids in the Victorian period had their fairy tales - sometimes pretty dark - but they had them. And the Greeks had stories about Hercules and the Anglo Saxons had Beowulf and the Japanese had I think... Susano-o and the dragon and all kinds of stories about wandering samurai.
It's an important thing, it's part of our culture and we're kind of losing it here.
... god this is getting to be teal deer. Bear with me, I swear I've got a point.
What I was thinking was this - I can't be the only Ported artist. There's gotta be more of you out there. Writers, too. And I know there's some of you with a head for business and layout.
We have crazy adventures in this city. I heard Godzilla attacked a while back. Jedi hang out with Skrull and dudes from Krypton. So...
Why not make a comic book series? About us? About our adventures, our lives? People could volunteer to tell their stories, and we'd get writers to write 'em out, and then the artists would draw, and then we could publish it. And that way, even though people'd be constantly losing their childhood stories - that we can't do anything about - they'd get new ones. And then there'd be the added bonus of that they'd get to know us better. Not as those jerkwads who constantly buzz their offices on the way to do their heroing, but as people.
... people in comics I guess but you get my meaning, right?
Problem is, I'm not very good at organizing. I don't have any head for business at all, and getting people to work together? I can kind of do it but... no, that's really better left in somebody else's hands. So... what I'm asking for is the following:
1. Anyone interested in working on this project? I need writers, artists, businessmen, layout people, inkers, letterers, colorists, web designers, PR guys and advertising... the whole thing.
2. ... I forgot what 2 was.
[Private to Donna]
Hey, Wonder Girl. I think I still owe you coffee, don't I? When are you free?
[Private to Lantern Haus]
Hey guys? I hate to be the one to bring this up, but this is getting really crowded. I have no idea how we're going to afford it, but we might want to look into getting more space, especially if more of us show up. Some kind of... I don't know, Corps Outpost or something. I've been looking at housing prices and the one thing I do know is that thanks to the stupid number of supervillains around here, housing prices are really cheap. Not as cheap as they seem to have been after that whole Godzilla event that I missed (I mean really, missing Godzilla? Damn.) but still pretty cheap. And while you're all wonderful people, eventually we're going to run out of room.
[Kyle is sitting in Lantern Haus, painting. What he's doing right now is a kind of impressionist version of the City skyline, lots of thick paint and stippling. Also, talking.]
I love the video function on these things. Sure, it's a pain when it comes on by accident - seriously, how sensitive are those buttons? - but it means that I can paint and make a post at the same time. And if I want I can have a construct play the audio posts of the day for me from across the room.
[Smiles, though he's pretty intent on his painting]
Anyway. First, sorry for disappearing off the network like that. I got a huge commission from Warner Brothers to do concept art for their upcoming Thundercats movie, as well as some matte paintings, and heck, even a couple toy designs. [he laughs a little] Basically I've been working my tail off. I'm pretty sure my wrists are going to fall right off but, hey, it pays the bills.
Anyway, part of the reason they're so keen to rush this out is that everyone's terrified that Lion-O or somebody's going to get ported in. So they want to get this movie out, make as much money as they can, and the try to pick something more obscure. That seems to be the name of the game here.
But that got me thinking...
"Man!", I said to myself. "We have a lot of people from fiction here." It's like this whole metafictional... thing... where like, I don't know, stuff we make up was actually true somewhere. Which I guess is possible because of many-worlds theory, and I know from experience that there's plenty of alternate universes. [he pauses, and taps his brush handle against the frame of the painting] But that's beside the point.
The actual point is: whenever someone who in this world is fictional gets Ported in, everything about them vanishes. Bam! Gone. I was looking for Star Wars DVDs the other day, and there's none. Transformers? Nope. Harry Potter books? Nada. It's all gone. Which is one reason it's been so hard for an artist like me to get work - my main way of paying the bills is stuff like concept art for toy and film companies, and most of them are shaking in their boots. Hasbro is on the verge of going under; all they have left is GI Joe, and the two big comic companies? They're falling back on the most obscure weird things you can think of, and they aren't doing well. In any case, we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars gone... but, much more importantly, comic book collections. Action figures. This stuff is people's childhoods, it means so much to them, and every time one of us shows up from a universe where it's real... all that vanishes.
[stops painting and turns around to face the camera]
This is just not cool, guys.
I'm not even meaning in the nerd rage kind of way, though there's a little of that. I mean... okay. Those of you who grew up on a version of Earth, during the 70's and 80's and 90's. Didn't this stuff have a huge influence on you as kids? Like, Star Wars, we all know Star Wars. I've seen the archive stuff of when Obi-Wan showed up. We had lightsaber battles in our backyards, we'd pretend we were Luke fighting the Empire. And you younger guys, who grew up in the 90's - I know that a lot of us hate the prequels, but it still got a whole new generation of kids believing in something bigger than they were. Believing in that one farmboy - no offense, Luke - could change the universe.
It's a concept I think that goes back way farther than our childhoods. Kids in the Victorian period had their fairy tales - sometimes pretty dark - but they had them. And the Greeks had stories about Hercules and the Anglo Saxons had Beowulf and the Japanese had I think... Susano-o and the dragon and all kinds of stories about wandering samurai.
It's an important thing, it's part of our culture and we're kind of losing it here.
... god this is getting to be teal deer. Bear with me, I swear I've got a point.
What I was thinking was this - I can't be the only Ported artist. There's gotta be more of you out there. Writers, too. And I know there's some of you with a head for business and layout.
We have crazy adventures in this city. I heard Godzilla attacked a while back. Jedi hang out with Skrull and dudes from Krypton. So...
Why not make a comic book series? About us? About our adventures, our lives? People could volunteer to tell their stories, and we'd get writers to write 'em out, and then the artists would draw, and then we could publish it. And that way, even though people'd be constantly losing their childhood stories - that we can't do anything about - they'd get new ones. And then there'd be the added bonus of that they'd get to know us better. Not as those jerkwads who constantly buzz their offices on the way to do their heroing, but as people.
... people in comics I guess but you get my meaning, right?
Problem is, I'm not very good at organizing. I don't have any head for business at all, and getting people to work together? I can kind of do it but... no, that's really better left in somebody else's hands. So... what I'm asking for is the following:
1. Anyone interested in working on this project? I need writers, artists, businessmen, layout people, inkers, letterers, colorists, web designers, PR guys and advertising... the whole thing.
2. ... I forgot what 2 was.
[Private to Donna]
Hey, Wonder Girl. I think I still owe you coffee, don't I? When are you free?
[Private to Lantern Haus]
Hey guys? I hate to be the one to bring this up, but this is getting really crowded. I have no idea how we're going to afford it, but we might want to look into getting more space, especially if more of us show up. Some kind of... I don't know, Corps Outpost or something. I've been looking at housing prices and the one thing I do know is that thanks to the stupid number of supervillains around here, housing prices are really cheap. Not as cheap as they seem to have been after that whole Godzilla event that I missed (I mean really, missing Godzilla? Damn.) but still pretty cheap. And while you're all wonderful people, eventually we're going to run out of room.