REVIEW: End of Month Reviews #52 - April 2008 [spoilers]

[EDMLite]

On May 6, 10:15 pm, Saxon Brenton <saxonbren... at hotmail.com> wrote:
> [REVIEW] End of Month Reviews #52 - April 2008 [spoilers]

>      A second observation:  A story of this nature has to flit about
> between scenes for two reasons.  Firstly because it needs to touch upon
> the main plot threads, secondly because it needs to show the impact of
> the approaching crisis on a range of people.  However, there needs to be
> emotional investment if the reader is to care about the characters and
> what's happening to them... I'm sitting
> here worrying that the combination of an ensemble cast, plus the late
> appearance of the Net.Trenchcoat Brigade, may make this look like the
> equivalent of an Event comic from one of the mainstream publishers.
> That is to say, a reasonable enough story that nevertheless looks like
> it's padded with gratuitous continuity references.  Which brings us back
> to Continuity Porn Star, I suppose.  The issue I'm thinking of is not so
> much a question of accessibility (although that point has been raised by
> Tom Russell, and it is not invalid) but a more academic interest in
> whether there's a different point between 'real' comics and our amateur
> fiction for where the line between acknowledgement of past continuity
> and gratuitous continuity lies.  Hmmm.

That's a tough question.  The LNH was built on the notion that
today's one-off joke could become tomorrow's well-developed
character.  So resurrecting a long-disused character (or
several) within the course of a storyline doesn't seem like
continuity porn -- as long as the appearance actually
helps to develop the character, and doesn't merely trot
them out for the purpose of fanwankery.

I'm particularly interested in this point because I'm
currently at work on what could be considered a Big
Event story (yes, I'm one of those who committed to
writing one of the "skipped chapters" in Beige
Countdown, and have been leaving poor Arthur in the
lurch for lo these many months).

I volunteered because I've spent years writing
stories with one or two characters, and I really
wanted to write a big, splashy story set in space
with dozens of characters blasting the bejeezus
out of each other.  It's taking me a long time, and
I'm really enjoying writing it (it's hard to write
a fight scene with a giant flying hamster taking on
a telekinetic cat aboard a spaceship built by alien
koalas and not walk away with a smile on your face).
But I'm worried about how it might be received.

I'm not sensing a lot of love for Big Event stories
lately.

And I'm wondering why that is.  Is it because of
the overwhelming number of them spilling out of the
Big Two recently?  Is it because of the nature of the
Big Event story itself (some major change has to
happen for it to mean anything, but comic book
universes and big, irreversible changes mix about
as well as water and potassium)?

Is it because Big Event stories tend to be large,
with lots of flitting about from scene to scene?
(My LNH Comics Presents #501 is probably the most
egregious example of this). And is there a way
around that?  Lalo's 58.5 is essentially the story
of one big event, but he's telling it in chapters,
with each chapter focusing on a small group of
characters.

I'd like to know what people think about this.
I think Arthur has set the bar high for Beige
Countdown stories so far, and I'd like the ones
I create to be both fun to read and presented in
a format that won't seem as...well, bloated as
some of my stories have been in the past...

--Easily-Discovered Man Lite
--Wondering if this typeface makes him look fat