UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

2 thoughts on “538 – Astute Paranoia”

  1. darius404

    Well that’s a pretty damn good question! Another reminder that Chuck isn’t stupid.

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Corpo sponsored snuff films … no surprise there. I wonder what voice over model they use – dispassionate wildlife commentator or enthusiastic conservationist. Or maybe Nascar ?

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538 – Astute Paranoia
Posted on December 11, 2024 by Dawn

Oscar was probably hoping Chuck would talk him down from his suspicions, not escalate them.

We're close to the end of this episode/issue, just a matter of figuring whether the final page will be next Wednesday the 18th or we'll put it up for Xmas. We'll try to drop a notice here and on Facebook once we figure that out, but we definitely want to post it before the New Year.

Keeping a lid on your “voice”…

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Clint
It feels like that to be an artist (which includes writers, yes) is to be constantly second-guessing yourself. To be an artist producing something for others is to be constantly second-guessing yourself but also forging ahead with it anyhow because otherwise you’re not going to get anywhere. To be producing art long-term is to eventually be wondering about that saying of either dying a hero or living long enough to see yourself become the villain. All those sins and pet peeves that drive you crazy when you’re a consumer… can you truly say you’ve avoided them now that you’re on the production side? Would you even be aware if you had slipped? If you do notice, are you guilty about it or (perhaps worst of all) do you now just shrug your shoulders and embrace the dark side? These are the kinds of thoughts that… well, they don’t keep me up at night, and perhaps that’s it’s own sign of degeneration. But I still get them while writing. For instance, one thing that can annoy me is if the author’s voice starts coming through the mouths of every one of their characters in a “samey” manner. Don’t get me wrong, an author’s work should have some mark of style to it, but omnipresent quippiness in dialogue can get old fast. And yet here I am recently wondering if the words coming out of Whitecloud are true to her or is she no different than Rosa’s teasing of Frank way back when? Is Frank himself having the occasional wordy (or at least semi-wordy) retort a betrayal of his character? Basically, am I shoving my own words into their mouths, chortling at my cleverness at the expense of consistency and verisimilitude? But the story mustn’t grind to a halt from artistic paralysis, so eventually the words have to get published. A lot of times it helps to set them down in a draft, walk away and come back later and see how it reads, and if it doesn’t make me cringe I feel better about it. And then there are times I still fret right up to the moment I have the comic locked and loaded. Sometimes beyond that. But hey, Sturgeon’s Law says 90 percent of it is crap anyhow. I’ll content myself with feeling skilled at least 10 percent of the time.