Apophenia Stories

GreenAdder · Post by **GreenAdder** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:58 am

Moo Cow wrote: Wow, very funny and awesome! niiiice! i like all the religious stuff and the relationship between the schoolgirl and the bride...

Thanks. Always nice to know that someone appreciates my humor.

Chaszmyr Mae'Val · Post by **Chaszmyr Mae'Val** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:06 pm

Damn, those were good. I don't think my effort's going to be very humourous, I'm too much of a romantic...

And I will try and get it done! I hate Overtime...

Jackalope · Post by **Jackalope** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:17 pm

Ghastly wrote:Okee dokee gang, Here's Ghastly's Guide To Lettering Shit.

Cool stuff, but it's "SPEECH," Chris, not "speach." Rants about "Free Speach" are one of the oldest internet luser jokes out there...

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:24 pm

I'm a billingual illiterate. I can't read or write in two languages.

Tellner · Post by **Tellner** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:09 pm

Honestly, they are just fine without words.

Moo Cow · Post by **Moo Cow** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:30 pm

*grins* my version would be mega wangsty and not very funny...

~Sara
Yes, "wangst"

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:27 pm

Reminds me of those passages of harry potter where you change every instance of wand to wang.

"..and a hot white fluid shot out of his wang"...

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:48 pm

A submission by Initial_C is up at Apophenia Stories

Moo Cow · Post by **Moo Cow** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 5:51 pm

*pokes* i do not see it... it's not in the menu

~Sara

R_Karandosh · Post by **R_Karandosh** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:38 pm

Wow, thanks for all the nice words about my version of the story! You turn my head! Squidflakes, if there was any Gilbert and Sullivan in there it was accidental, I ain't that subtle. And you may have not noticed me Sara, but when I remember my entry code (rare) I leave a message or two on the forum. But mostly I'm Lurky McLurk of East Lurksmore.

I enjoyed GreenAdder's rendition very much. The poor Fiancee's father, the D&D virgins, and the Goblins chanelling Jerry Lewis a la "pretty la-dy!" were all lots of fun! And when the Dark Elf Seductress (the Healer) suggested seducing the father of the bride (the Lieutenant) as his daughter's hated lesbian lover ... I just about fell off my chair! Good stuff!

I noticed both GreenAdder and I didn't add much dialogue to the spinning with the dress, the penultimate page. The visuals were just so evocative that I couldn't see the need to gild the lily by adding lines like "Whee! I'm happy 'cause I found a dress!" It was a masterfully drawn page. Also I think GreenAdder used the page with the girls in the bunks to good effect, defining their relationship. But I thought it worked wonderfully without any words, in the story I was telling. I thought it showed The Schoolgirl's pain and her need to hide behind her tough-girl persona. However, I also felt like I was cheating if I turned in a un-edited page, so I added the single word and balloon with an old movie reference, just to justify my existence. I feel so cheap, and I still believe that it's a perfect page, for what I was doing, without dialogue at all.

May I make a bold suggestion? Can we unofficially agree that the "writer" may leave panels or a whole page unmodified if he or she thinks it works well without dialogue? I believe Ghastly is artist enough to produce images that can stand alone. We shouldn't fault each other if one of us occasionally uses such a silent page. (No fair turning in the whole comic without any words at all. That's going too far!)

GreenAdder · Post by **GreenAdder** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:06 am

Thanks. I always have that "panic moment" when I submit anything to the Internets. "What if I'm a hack? What if nobody likes it?" So any sort of validation is always appreciated.

I actually had everything but the last two pages done for about five days. They'd stick in my head no matter what I was doing. "How am I going to make them work? How am I going to end it on a high note?" What I came up with was pretty much the best I could do. Would it be too pretentious or vain to put a "commentary" up on my own website explaining what was going through my mind with each gag?

I left very few panels empty because (in case you hadn't noticed), I have a tendency to be somewhat verbose.

I thought yours was excellent in how it not only broke the fourth wall, but shattered it to pieces, swept them up, and incinerated them. It's hard to get that kind of humor to work (believe me, I've tried), but without blowing smoke, you pulled it off magnificently.

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 3:32 am

It'll take a while between when I put the pages up and when the WCN database updates all the drop downs. Usually about an hour. If you click on the LAST button it will always take you to the last added installment block. Each author gets an installment block for each chapter.

It's certainly fine to leave a panel or even an entire page blank if you feel it enhances your story better that way.

I really like the way Richard's story is full of humour but still maintains the dignity of the characters which really gives some touching moments. The moment with the Lieutenant and the Healer (in guise of the Fiancee) in the bed reciting a prayer to the Creator was very sweet. There's also a moral ambiguity to the characters in Richard's version which makes it very interesting. You don't know really who is the "good guy" and who is the "bad guy", it's just different people following their own agendas and you have to wait for the story to play out before you can see who, if anyone, is rightious in their actions.

It's also interesting in that Richard has made the comic not only about the comic but about the archtypes of all western literature.

I'm quite pleased with all three of the submissions that have been received so far, everyone is doing a bang up job. What will be realling interesting is to see how everyone's stories progress as more and more of the comic is revealed to them and they will have to interpret the images and find how to make it fit into their continuity. This is where the real fun/headache comes and it will give you a very good idea of what it's like for me to build this comic page by page with no idea what the future holds only what has happened in the past. This is why it is better if you get into the lettering earlier rather than later so you get the full experience of flying without a net.

Very good work so far people. Very good indeed.

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:01 am

Oh yeah, the D&D Virgins with the whole "baka punch" scene had me howling.

R_Karandosh · Post by **R_Karandosh** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:51 pm

Thanks for the praise, Ghastly. But I'm not sure I achieved what I set out to do. I was trying for the triple play, the hat trick, the menage a quatre ... in short, I wanted the reader to do a triple-take.

(Spoiler Warning) (like anyone cares)

I wanted your first reaction to be "Hey! All the good guys are babbling religious fanatics!" but then you start to accept them and their crazy ways, and that the characters who should be the 'bad guys' are actually sensible. Then you may notice "Hey! You could say that Ghastly is 'the Creator' and I and the other readers are the 'gods' in their religion!" and that might make you happy that you figured that out. And then, hopefully late at night you would realize that all their babbling about the world coming to an end unless the gods loved them is in fact true, that without readership the comic will end and thus their world ends. And that means that their stupid, wacky religion is in fact true, and all the sensible characters are really still the bad guys, unwittingly working for the end of the world. (Unless you're really interested in a comic about a guy talking about the weather.) So I was really hoping that I could whipsaw your view of the situation and characters that way.

Now, I'm pretty sure I bollixed that up, but I'm wondering if that chain of thought is too obscure and just never occurs to people, or if it's instantaneous and obvious from the start.

Also, once you realize that, you realize that the characters are cursing by speaking of Ghastly's testicles. (Tee Hee Hee!)

ManaUser · Post by **ManaUser** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 5:09 pm

Hmm, speaking for myself, I'd say most of that did get across, but not in discrete stages.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 5:12 pm

I'm TOed now! Some of my ideas have already been taken! I must work quickly.

Chaszmyr Mae'Val · Post by **Chaszmyr Mae'Val** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 4:12 am

OT: I have a rotten cold today

sore throat, clogged nose, and the ache in my bones from the thursday kickboxing lesson hasn't left yet despite several hot baths and showers. I don't do chicken soup because I think it's disgusting

but I hope broccoli and watercress has similar curative properties.

Back on subject: here's my front cover My only gripe about the layout is that I wish there'd been a way to move the Chapter 1 lettering, but I hope it's okay.

Yes, the name is a Rammstein song title; it kind of goes with the theme and I think it will be my little bit of apophenic tradition. Chapter 2 in my mind at present may be called Spieluhr (Music Box)

I have three very good stories ahead of me - time to get to work.

GreenAdder · Post by **GreenAdder** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:46 am

swordsman3003 - Idea overlap was my second-biggest worry. My first one was "Is this even funny?" Finally I got some good advice: Stop worrying about it and just write. If what you've got is similar to someone else's idea, chalk it up to coincidence.

Swordsman3003 · Post by **Swordsman3003** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 4:59 pm

Thanks man. I'm nearly finished, I hope it's up to par.

Queenhank · Post by **Queenhank** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 5:46 pm

So, when I was much younger, I was big in the Fanfiction scene. Man, I loved me some Fanfiction. Especially Gundam Wing YAOI Fanfiction. Now that was some angst-filled stuff. But, I am getting off-topic. So, in those years when I was reading all this angsty Gundam Wing YAOI Fanfiction, I was also collecting it. Saving hundreds, eventually thousands, of .txt and .doc files on my hard drive. Then, one day, I came upon a simple AI program, into which you could feed .txt and .doc files (presumably with information about you, so it could have conversations with you. You all know the drill, right?)...this gave me an idea.

I took my hundreds of megs of Gundam Wing YAOI Fanfiction, and input it into the AI program. What came out was pure gold, I tells ya: A random Gundam Wing YAOI Fanfic Generator. That's right. All you had to do was type two (or three, whatever) names/Gundams/whatevers into it, and it would spit back a paragraph or more of randomly cobbled together (yet surprisingly grammatical) Fanfiction. I could spend hours upon hours just creating fic after fic with that thing.

I tell you that to tell you this: when I heard (or rather, read) about Apophenia 357, I instantly recognized the same sort of thing I had discovered all those years (by which I mean 5) ago. I have since been entranced.

Now, I tell you that, so I can say this: I am hereby announcing my intention to dig up that old fanfic generator, and use it to generate text for my version of Apophenia 357. I shall do no more editing than to change the names (from, say, "Duo" to "Mage", etc.) and fit the dialogue into the panels. Yes, I shall take a randomly generated comic, and give it randomly generated (most likely angst-filled) dialogue.

I give you this warning, because in doing this, I may very well cause the universe to implode. You should probably put a paper bag over your head, or lie down or something.