Comic Genesis Forums

Yeah... there really should have been more evil alien invasions in high school.

I dunno...the way I remember high school, it already was pretty similar to 'The Brain from Planet Arous'.

ChaosBurnFlame wrote:There's a very simple resolution to any plagurism...

If you stated your artwork is not to be reproduced elsewhere, and the art is then used elsewhere, then clearly it's in violation.

I found when that has happened to me that threats of a copyright suit don't quite have the same effect as sending the party a bill for using your art (including time, materials, etc) stating they could keep it up, as long as they pay that bill for services rendered.

That usually gets a quick response.

That's pretty clever . Has anyone ever actually sent you money?

ivstudios wrote:

ChaosBurnFlame wrote:There's a very simple resolution to any plagurism...

If you stated your artwork is not to be reproduced elsewhere, and the art is then used elsewhere, then clearly it's in violation.

I found when that has happened to me that threats of a copyright suit don't quite have the same effect as sending the party a bill for using your art (including time, materials, etc) stating they could keep it up, as long as they pay that bill for services rendered.

That usually gets a quick response.

That's pretty clever . Has anyone ever actually sent you money?

The offending party removed the material within 3 days of getting the bill (which I marked to around $800).

Still not bad. I guess you'd have to be careful how you went about that, though. If you were to word the bill wrong they could send you the money and wind up with the rights to your work. (Unlikely, but I could totally see that sort of thing happening.)

ivstudios wrote:Still not bad. I guess you'd have to be careful how you went about that, though. If you were to word the bill wrong they could send you the money and wind up with the rights to your work. (Unlikely, but I could totally see that sort of thing happening.)

The bill was worded to state it was payment for use of artwork in the context they wished on that serverspace, and that any future artwork by me used by them would warrant a second bill and any derivative works or money made from said derivative works would belong solely to me, the original creator of said works...

TRI wrote:Am I the only one weirded out by the fact that this topic has managed to turn into Leperdoctor and Dominic Durgan having a friendly chat about Dominic Deegan?

No. Wait....wait....yes...nope, still no.

leperdoctor wrote:

Dominic Durgan wrote:This is what we in "the biz" call "too much credit".

Yeah...I like grasping at straws. It's a past time of mine!! I think I'll slam my head on the desk if it turns out that Neileen is trying to get Luna to actually have her...because, like you mentioned, lots of other girls...

Though I think it's implied that Luna is actually really pretty, besides the teeth thing.

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2002-07-06

Actually, my vote goes to that he really is trying to woo her then dump her. In DD universe, bad guys aren't allowed to have positive character traits, so I don't think that feeling of sincere love is even written in his (sic) character sheet. Plus, according to codex of this comic, dating a girl who is ugly because of huge fangs seems to be the act of ultimate sacrifice and maturity, less chance that bad guy should have it.

I agree on one point but disagree on another. The dude with the two-tone hair...Celesto? He had a sincere love for Luna's sister (don't know her name), but she was the top lady of sin city. Anyways, even after he found out some bad stuff about her he continued to love her and uphold her honour and stuff.

Though I agree with you on your other point- the sin city lady was really pretty. None of the bad guys seem to be 'involved' with anyone overly ugly, so yeah, being able to see past a person's external flaws is considered a positive character point in Deegan's protagonist characters.

I actually thought that Celesto's love was portrayed rather negatively, at first as a lusty love (with threesomes and murder plans and all) and comic's tone is usually judgemental about lust and open sexuality in general - and later I got the impression that bad character could only love another bad character - because of similar character traits, perhaps? Celesto was the only one to condemn her clod-blooded murder, and in the context of him being taken away to prison, it seemed as if he had done that only because he was a bad guy himself.

It's a case of "Mookie see, Mookie do" - pretty much every plot twist in Deegan is Mookie trying to emulate something he's seen before, and not doing it very well at all. Which is why I believe that Dominic Durgan is a much more original comic than Dominic Deegan, borrowed art or not

Hey, Mookie? There's something about story structure called Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action.

It's not "Overdrawn, repetitive sequence of barely-connected events" followed by "Ridiculously quickly resolved lame anti-climax."

Legendary wrote:Hey, Mookie? There's something about story structure called Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action.

It's not "Overdrawn, repetitive sequence of barely-connected events" followed by "Ridiculously quickly resolved lame anti-climax."

I think you meant "lame anti-climax and terrible, worthless pun for no reason whatsoever"

McDuffies wrote:I actually thought that Celesto's love was portrayed rather negatively, at first as a lusty love (with threesomes and murder plans and all) and comic's tone is usually judgemental about lust and open sexuality in general - and later I got the impression that bad character could only love another bad character - because of similar character traits, perhaps? Celesto was the only one to condemn her clod-blooded murder, and in the context of him being taken away to prison, it seemed as if he had done that only because he was a bad guy himself.

That's true- did Celesto defend her because he truly felt something for her, or was it simply because she was just another bad guy, and he wanted to make a point at the injustice of the situation?

Dominic Durgan wrote:It's a case of "Mookie see, Mookie do" - pretty much every plot twist in Deegan is Mookie trying to emulate something he's seen before, and not doing it very well at all. Which is why I believe that Dominic Durgan is a much more original comic than Dominic Deegan, borrowed art or not

I think the only plot twist I shook my head at was when the three major bad guys came back from the death. That plot twist has been done to death- ZOMG, this major bad dude is still ALIVE?! But other than that, I didn't notice any real rip-offs, but it might be because I have a strange taste in movies and cartoons. Care to list some of the rip-offs?

leperdoctor wrote:I think the only plot twist I shook my head at was when the three major bad guys came back from the death. That plot twist has been done to death- ZOMG, this major bad dude is still ALIVE?! But other than that, I didn't notice any real rip-offs, but it might be because I have a strange taste in movies and cartoons. Care to list some of the rip-offs?

Doctor Who + Harry Potter = Dominic Deegan

Okay but seriously, writing has these things called topoi, commonly called tropes (although tropes are different entirely, so don't call 'em that). Topoi (singular: topos) are recurring basic themes, stock character types and various standards of convention. They're usually only associated with one genre, since they are essentially the basics of simple literary works.

For example, a mad scientist is a topos of the horror genre. A dark and stormy night is another horror topos. Playing god is a horror topos. Whether character, setting or theme, they're all topoi. Throw them all together and you've got something that is recognisably horror. Well, B-movie schlock horror at least

Sticking with the horror B-movie thing for a second, Dominic Deegan is essentially a Frankenstein's monster of topoi. Now, actually using of topoi isn't bad - most writers do it. What Mookie does is just throw everything together, run 1.21 jigawatts through the bolts and assume it's a perfectly normal story.

Look at Deegan magic. Magic itself is a fantasy topos, and the most prevalent topos around. Fantasy doesn't have to have magic, but having it in makes people go "ah, fantasy" the same way aliens or robots are sci-fi topoi.

Anyway, getting back on subject here, look at the first magic users to appear in the comic. They are Deegan himself, Luna and her mother. They use the "D&D wizard" standard of magic. It is elemental force/energy shaped by knowledge gained through dedicated study, as evidenced by them talking in nonsense equations. Later on we have the magic university that reinforces this view that magic is a learned process.

Then along comes Jayden. Jayden uses "white magic" (less a topos and more a cliché) which amounts to healing, healing, more healing and some healing as well. This lends credence to the "RPG system" hypothesis mentioned earlier. We had our attackers, now here's the medic to lay on some buffs as Deegan aggros a mob of 2-dimensional villains.

Jayden gets her magic from some unspecified deity who never really gets talked about a lot. There's a church, there's an order of knights that do something related, but yadda yadda who cares. Apparently not Mookie! This is one of the things he does: he has a benevolent god with a church full of healin' sorts not because it's important to the plot, but because that's how it's been done in Final Fantasy and other RPGs. You could easily do without all this crappy theology attached for no reason and have Jayden fulfil her general purpose: damsel in distress.

This is Mookie's favourite topos. You might assume, like I do, that he's a closet misogynist. After all, when you look at all his female characters, you see a pattern. Raped, abused, betrayed, beaten up - lovely. But as much as I'd like to blame it all on a subconscious hatred of women, it's down to the "damsel in distress" topos. Mookie's trying to emulate the pulp stories of years past, and other typical old fantasy fare, where the obligatory female character existed to shriek, get tied up and otherwise be indebted to the hero.

As a culture, we've progressed on from this kind of weak characterisation. Also why we don't write black people as simpletons and cowards anymore. We've left behind such stereotypes in the past. Well, when I say "we" I mean us good writers. Mookie and other terrible writers still recycle the same ol' garbage: men do while the women support, the world is split between good/evil, evil people know they're evil and cackle...

Back to magic. We see, during the Storm of Souls fiasco, a new aspect of magic. Gregory Deegan apparently learns magic inherently. He doesn't have to spend any length of time learning anything, all he has to do is mentally fondle some balls. Of fire. He is too cool for school. Quite why he can do this, and everyone else has to go to Hogwarts and get taught by a bunch of morons like Deegan and whoever the others are, is a mystery. It's not related to the only other source of white magic we've seen, which is Generic Deity, so... what?

It's a topos. More specifically, BURNING SHONEN PASSION. A young hero having some sugoi inner power that he can draw upon to save everyone by going SUPER-SORCERER is a topos from animu and manga. Naruto, Bleach, Dragonball Z - everybody has their own unique strength to draw upon in order to beat up a previously unbeatable bad guy.

Go and read (or reread) the whole "Gregory saves da day" bit of Storm of Souls. It's a little love poem to all shonen manga, or probably shonen anime because Mookie has probably never read any manga in his life. (How do I know this? His terrible art style, that's how. Looks like budget anime does.) Now, you could write this off as a simple tribute if he didn't keep doing it all the Goddamn time in every single thing he does.

There is no direct parallels I can spool off for you, apart from him throwing in a "slime" which is a ridiculous inclusion into a fantasy world. (Works in RPGs where you need pathetic enemies to bash repeatedly in order to level, but not in a work of fiction.) It's mostly topoi, and using and re-using the topoi he's seen in his favourite comics or animu. Take a good look at Deegan's world, it's slapdash at best. You've got these "royal knights" running the show, but no royalty anywhere in sight. You've got orcs for no Goddamn reason whatsoever, apart from the fact that "FANTASY NEEDS ORCS". Same with the few elves we've seen him throw in. They're there because he thinks that's what fantasy is, rather than serving any purpose to the plot.

I'd go a bit more in depth, but I'm kinda strung out on caffeine after a long day of workin' hard and I'm not sure I'm being 100% coherent. Do let me know if you want to hear more.

Dominic Durgan wrote:...run 1.21 jigawatts

gigawatts.

Christopher Lloyd assumed the first "G" had the "J" sound and mispronounced it.

ok, carry on. don't mind me.

Actually, "jigawatt" was a legitimate pronounciation that has been superceded by the hard G. The scriptwriters attended a lecture of some kind where the guy said it as "jigawatt" and so that's how they spelled it in the script. Lloyd read it as it was, no error on his part.

Besides, considering the era Doc Brown is from, it's perfectly acceptable that he'd pronounce it that way.

Handy Wikipedia link.

*GASP*

WIKIPEDIA!!!!! HOW DARE YOU REFER TO IT! Allow me to bring up the wikipedia article on why wikipedia sucks!

...hmm...not here...curious...

It's here, actually:

Why Wikipedia sucks.

What you couldn't see is that I was not looking at Wikipedia but at a stack of books that I'm supposed to be checking in instead of posting.




It's still there.