Accomplishments (I finished something!)

I'm one of those type of creative artists that comes up with ideas and plans but has a hard time finishing them. That said, last week, I finished a Devil Dogs story called FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF GOD. This would be story #3 under the Devil Dogs phase of the Demon Hunters project. It took longer than I wanted. Finishing it was an accomplishment, something I don't give myself credit for usually because I have a lot of things in my mind. In terms of the Devil Dogs stories, I was thinking of #4 and how to wrap up the phase and to transition to the next phase of their evolution: War Hounds.

To get technical, Demon Hunters Vol1 is a mouthful. I didn't see any other way on how to do break it down because it's that complicated. Well, it's probably not but it's multi-layered! That aside, I'm working through #4 which will be called FATES WARNING. Yes, that is an Iron Maiden song title. Yes, I have a habit of using their song titles for stories.

The other story I finished last week (or was it the week before), was a vignette (short diostory) for Demon Hunters Vol2: The 4 Horsemen (shortened, 4 Horsemen or 4H). The visual shorts are out-of-sequence prequels to the 4 Horsemen story. It will not be a series of stories like the World Eaters (which follows the adventures of the Devil Dogs). It will be a self-contained story but the 4 Horsemen, to a degree, show up in Vol1 in a preliminary way. That part of the Demon Hunters project deserves it's own blog post or 2. 

In the end, I finished up #3 which took a life of its own. In fact, that lil story starts to set up for Vol3: 7 Orochi. Vol2 and Vol3 are closely related.

Wait, what ARE the Demon Hunters?

Who writes a story about a squad who hunts demons but doesn't actually tell their story?!?

Almost better not to ask! (okay, the 2 primary Demon Hunter characters make a cameo in FOR THE GREATER OF GOOD only to introduce them and indicate what the future holds for the Devil Dogs. They won't get story time until Phase 3 when they are tasked with the hunt!)

At the moment, I don't have plans for a 4 Horsemen #4 vignette. Focusing on Devil Dogs #4.

*Lt Rocker. Leader of the Demon Hunters squad. 1 of 2 of the primary members*

 Action Figures: War of the Scales

I was just thinking about the scale issues that people have when it comes to action figures. When GI Joe released the Classified line back around 2020 (woo hoo, pre-covid!), I wasn't overly excited. I think it had more to do with price point than the increase in product size. At the same time, things weren't looking pretty for the 1:18 Joes; be it 3.75" or 4" or whatever Hasbro felt like making them. I remember trying a few of the figures out near the beginning. A lot of it had to do whether it had the same magic feel as the 8in Sigma 6 figures that Hasbro produced in 2005. Those things were fun and they were different.

I think I started with Snake Eyes, Scarlet, and Roadblock. I liked the updated look. Scarlet and Roadblock were fine. I actually liked the bulkiness of Roadblock. That was one big block of plastic and oddly, I felt it moreso w/ the Classifieds than I ever did with Sigma6. My disappointment was with Snake Eyes. Now, let's get this straight, I've bought this damn figure at least 3x. 1st time, I noticed that the chest piece was loose/wobbly (remember Big Hero6 when Hiro is putting his robot into the fight cage and it just flops around?) and the hands were so frakkin' stiff, I couldn't get the gun or sword in them. The 'use hot water to temporarily loosen them' is a bs solution because as a photographer, I'm not carrying a thermos of hot water with me outside, on a photoshoot, just to loosen up the hands. I love the Snake Eyes design. As a hobby artist who has done fan GI Joe stuff, coming up with a Snake Eyes design that I feel is good, acceptable, or something I can deal with, is incredibly hard cuz he's been made so many times. Thing is, those Classifieds still have hand issues. They also have stiff/locked joint issues too which bewilders me cuz that never happened in the 80s or even the 2000s (Theme Years!!!).

That aside, I realized that with Sima6, I didn't get held back by a scale change. I bought what I liked. I made stories with those 8in figures. I did photos with those 8in figures. I made memories with Kody with those 8in figures (gal's son; it was a common point between the two of us. Music, skateboarding, light sabers, GI Joe toys) because he was pretty much all in it. I'd buy doubles so he could have his own and we could do our thing with them. Eventually, that all went away and to move the story forward, I was at Boeing when I got into imports. In which, scale wasn't an issue cuz I wanted what I wanted. Be it cool-looking, weird, or that's just how things were. I have Kamen Rider figures in 2 different sizes. I bought SH Figuarts Power Rangers (movie outfits) which were awesome and so much better than the junk mass released for the stores.

These days, it feels like there are tons of gourmet toy companies out there. As far as I can tell, they are all good. 6in is the current trend but like 4in, these companies are stretching the sizes. Some seem to doing 6.2in. One is doing 7in. 4in makers are even pushing up, which is really weird to me. I've pretty much made peace with GI Joe Classified. 

I see it like this.

I am not a toy collector. That saves a huge headache right there. I see posts on FB from the collector side of things and their rants towards every lil thing and detail. Some I can understand but others, it's like, "ha! good thing I'm not a hardcore collector!" I prefer that the product I buy has a use. Stimulates the creativity. Never been much of the type to just put on a shelf for dust to gather on it. I'd be far more the type to create dioramas on a shelving unit to show stuff off.

I am not a completionist. This one is tough because it's easy to get into this situation. I don't need all the Classified Dreadnoks to satisfy myself. In this particular case, I've been trying to fight it pretty hard. But I admit, they do look good. It'd be nice to have the Z family and the 3 original noks plus a Thrasher (if they ever make him). I have the family and I kind of fell in that trap. However, I do like Zandar, Zarana, and Zanya in general. Speaking of the GI Joe O-13, that's another matter. The figures look good. It's hard not to want them all and end up with all of them. It's probably a good thing I'm not a hard Warhammer 40k fan and completionist cuz that would suck!

I buy what I think is neat. I buy what makes the Zedd Universe deeper. It's about the creativity and the stories to tell. Therefore, I don't feel I should be held back by scale. It's about fun. People probably forget that.

*Red 5. Unused image from 4 Horsemen: Vignette 3*

 Thinking...

When I started this Demon Hunters project, the plan was for a series of fast-paced, short stories following a Marauder Task Force squad called the Devil Dogs. Over a short period of time, they would evolve into the most hunted rogue squad in the world. They'll have also have changed their name twice, not to elude the good guys, but because each stage they attained. The end name would be World Eaters and that name would become legendary.

I had writer's block for some time on this one. A week or two ago, I figured out a go-around. That 'revelation' led me thinking of how I'm doing this entire project. The initial focus was, as stated, short and fast stories. Writing the current chapter, I realized that this is the perfect vehicle to build the Zedd Universe. Why in this project as opposed to the GI Joe stories I'm rewriting (from the existing diostories)? Because the GI Joe stories are very narrow in focus and doesn't really build the world. But with Demon Hunters, it's a chance to do a lot of stuff that I couldn't tell/push/explain/explore in the GI Joe diostories (or written stories in which, only TRANSFORMATIONS has been finished). It's a fascinating thing to me to realize this. The chapter I'm writing is actually fun. It's different, slightly dorky, definitely unusual but it explains a lot. It also helps flesh out the Andromeda Quest project that I never got underway (because that was turning into a massive entity that I didn't have time or money to do).

For those not familiar with the Demon Hunters project, here's the premise:

*physical representation of Devil Dogs (in toy form, duh)*

 Demon Hunters, 4 Horsemen, and Star Wars 7-9 Projects

I'm one of those guys that love coming up with projects, but horrible at seeing them through.

These 3 projects are often on my mind. I tend to do a lot of thinking in terms of them. Fill my mind with something, right?

I've been taking photos of the 4 Horsemen and doing some 1-page vignettes, but nothing canon-hard. I'm thinking of changing that and how I do the project. But let's back up for a moment to discuss Demon Hunters.

Demon Hunters is currently suffering writer's block. I think I found a way to get around it about a week ago but haven't put pen to paper yet. While I know in my head, it occurred to me (again), that the Demon Hunter story with the Devil Dogs is a 3-tier story. Meaning, the team will change names as time progresses. What I realized is, this project is going to get long. Not so much bigger, just longer. It's not just the Devil Dogs stories I have to get through, it's the 2 iterations afterwards. I'm not a fast writer so it could take years to get through the Devil Dogs stories. I plan on 10 or less short stories!

The plan was, near the end of the run, the 4 Horsemen aspect would come in. I'm deciding now, that's a bad idea. The 4 Horsemen need to be told at the same time. Because the Horsemen have a hand in what happens to the Devil Dogs. So I'm going to start working the 4 Horsemen story which I'm realizing now is going to be a bit bigger than I had thought it'd be. Which is fine, I'm still figuring out how I want to tell the story.

At the moment, I have photos I took last week for another 4-Horsemen vignette. I've decided that these are designed to start, lay the ground, and move the story forward in a visual fashion. It also gives me a reason to go outside and work on photography skills and well, just get outside.

The Star Wars project is still going. The chapters are all introductory to the main characters. I admit, I didn't think most of it through so having not figured out the finer details is slowing me down.

Until then, here's a raw image of an upcoming 4-Horsemen page. Major Bludd & Lady Obitus.

 

I got something to say...

I hate to say this triggers me. But something about it bugs me and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I'm just in denial and this is truth.

But.

When I got back into GI Joe in 2002 with the Joe Vs Cobra themed toys, my love and fascination with it was with the modern. It was with the current. For me, this meme implies the old. The past. It's a nostalgia thing, yes. But I'm not attached. However, GI Joe as a toy brand is a childhood entity. What GI Joe did for me as an adult (other than meet people, have good times in the discussion boards, etc) was give me a vehicle for creativity. It started with photography and that's only because I saw others doing it. It never occurred to me as a kid to take photos of my toys (that had to do with how I grew up and the era). From photographic singles of my GI Joe toys, it led to telling visual stories and even some art stuff. My toy interests meandered and evolved since 2002. I may not be doing visual stories (as much) but I'm writing stories. 

Btw, this image has been circulating lately. I pulled it from Checkpoint Alpha on Facebook.

 Trying new things...

Haven't been able to work on much for the last week or so.

I'm working on a lil photo project, nothing spectacular. As I was getting the photos ready to work on, well, people who know me know that I've been creating diostories for over 20 years. Around 5 years ago, I backed way off. To the point that I don't do them anymore. I do some very small projects (which oddly still take a lot of time).

Now, to get to the point, when I do the photos, I add all dialogue/text/etc onto the actual image. That means, all the text (w/ boxes, word balloons, etc) are on the photo itself (and not usually saved as layers; it's fully merged into 1 image) and it is all within the constraints of the photo. This is my anal thing. But I'm working a 3-photo page and I'm thinking a bit more outside the box. Or I'm trying to be flexible even if it'll be a headache in terms of file naming. I'm considering trying some of the text so that it breaks the photo's borders. It's something I know of doing, but my 'style' isn't like that. I think it's worth a try. My thinking behind it is, the text doesn't have to be constrained to the image itself.

To note, when I started diostories, they were done as a slide show. I learned early on, clicking NEXT for each image to get the story could be a long and tedius endeavor for the readers. 100 images were too much but it was also really hard to tell a story in that fashion. At some point, I realized I could make a large canvas (page) and put the finished images on it like a comic book. That's kind of how "diostories" became "diocomics". Once I realized I could do this, it really opened my mind and the stories got better. I also was shooting 2-3x as many photos for it and per chapter for a story were usually between 180-225 images. As for chapter length, it varied. I set a goal at 25 pages. Due to how long a single chapter was taking to produce, I moved to comic book-length chapters. Which I admit, I'm not really sure if the standard is 22 pages or 23 pages. By the time I decided to do 20-page chapters, a lot had happened in life and I moved to writing stories instead. Photography in general, was no longer a priority. I still do photoshoots but nowhere near as often as 10-15 yrs ago. And for the record, I'm procrastinating on a bunch of household chores too. Here, have a random image that has nothing to do with the post. Dr Mindbender! I'm still working on 4 Horsemen/7 Orochi. Just a hint, if this is how I'm envisioning Mindbender, then how might some of the others look? (Okay, I'll play fair. Some don't get any changes. Crystal Ball, however, is waiting for a new body.)

 Star Wars Ep7

A few weeks ago, I started toying around with the idea of writing Star Wars ep7-9 as how I saw fit. I had some vague ideas. I also had random ideas. Decent and good are subjective and entirely another matter! That said, I talked to a few people about things; bounced ideas off them and asked for basic information. That all said, I posted on FB I was gonna put other stuff on hold (ie; writer's block) and start this project. 

So far, it's been harder to write than I thought. There's a lot to the universe; more than any one person can handle. As I've told people, I'm doing more chatting and looking up information (and asking questions to Google and live humans) than writing. Now, to note, I'm horrible at creating titles and coming up with names. This morning, I googled Star Wars Name Generator. Hopefully, it might help a tad. 

The focus of this particular post goes back to the research I did on measurement units that Star Wars uses. Not just land measurements, but space measurements. I don't feel like bugging Mr. Horn tonight so I'm writing everything out here. Basically, I was learning about speed and distance. Parsecs, light speed, hyperdrive, etc. Tonight, my inquiry was sensor range. I used a regular Original Trilogy (OT) Star Destroyer as the basis as to how far their sensors can, uh, sense. I had already learned (and I'm rounding #s a bit here) how many KM are in a Parsec (because Star Wars uses metric). At the moment, I have a "rebel" ship on a deep space mission where the sector is largely unexplored. I needed an idea of how far their sensors can reach. Just because I found out a rough number for the sensor range doesn't mean I knew what that mean in terms of parsecs. I'm attaching a screenshot of the AI answer Google used. (no comment on the AI inquiry, it's automatic) I want to say, "all that matters in the end is that the sensors can't see a parsec away" but based on the numbers, that statement wouldn't make any sense. I mean, our satellites on Earth have to be pretty big to see light years away. Since a parsec is 3.26 light years away (per Star Wars lore), uh, the ships don't have radar dishes that big on them, they can't sense that far away. The ship in question, I haven't decided how far away they can see. 

Currently, the crew is talking about how dark the space is because there are few solar systems. They are leaving signal buoys so they can find their way back. They will end up finding a few things, I just needed an idea of how far away their destination will be. Who would have thought I'd do a bit of research for a fan-based story???

Btw... the beginning of the prologue is like this (it's not set in stone and will be reworked after the episode is written. It is very rough, but you get to see the Episode title):

 Sony PSP: Taking care of the PSP

I've made random posts about my PSP on FB but figured, it's time to move the rambling over here for a moment. I feel, times have really changed in terms of our portable technology. I'm not referring or focusing on cd and cassette players or boom boxes. Rather, cell phones (aka mobile phones for early adopters, right?) and portable game systems, especially the PSP (and maybe the Sega Gamegear).

Remember, eons ago, when we, as the consumer would protect our newly bought mobile devices? Those old Nokia phones and the plastic pouch-like thing we'd put it in? Now, I don't remember how much phones were back in 1998/1999 when they started gaining in popularity. To me, it wasn't a thing but it ended up a trend I joined in. I wasn't against it, just didn't see the point of needing a phone on me when not at home. Someone wants to get ahold of me? Leave a message. At some point, a certain someone felt it necessary I have one.

According to Google, the Sony PSP was released in the US in 2005. Cell phone technology was still pretty early; I don't think touch screen was quite a thing.

Now, the PSP was definitely an amped up version of whatever Nintendo Gameboy model was available. Google sez the MSRP on the PSP was $250. That's for just the system and I've no idea if they had bundles upon release. There were, in the end. The point here, $250 was a pretty good chunk of money for a portable system for any gamer out there. There were plenty of accessories to go with it and in the end, a wonderful slew of games and movies. What I'm getting at here, I bought a case for it. I believe the intent was to protect the thing from getting scratched.

Do we remember how much we cared about our portable device getting scratched???

Like, we took great care of our phones back then. They weren't a throw-away item (yet). And the PSP, I'm pretty sure, beat any cell phone price at that time.

I look at this case and wonder, was it really necessary? To keep the PSP safe, yes. Who knows if a cat would attack it or knock it off the desk. Drop a quarter on it, might scratch or crack the screen, right? That'd be $250 down the hole! I did find the case useful for holding 2 games (I always kept one in the PSP so 3 total) and it was a good protective container for it. Now, there's a protective lens in the case and I'm not sure what it's supposed to represent. Trying to play the PSP in the case, doesn't work cuz the shoulder buttons are difficult to reach. But I think the case used to be able to be propped up like a pyramid so you could watch a movie. Unfortunately, the lil plastic/rubber pieces that would keep it from sliding on the desk are long worn out.

Anyway, I like to think I take great care of my PSP (and Vita when I owned one). I was very paranoid about anything happening to the screen. I also tend to take care of my phone. Not the best I can, but I've had this thing for a few years. While it's been dropped a few times, it's managed to escape permanent harm. (knock on wood)

Ah, the old days.