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.

MTF: Demon Hunter 3: Which way to go?

Currently in the writing of the story, the Demon Hunters have found their target. I'm at a crossroads of how to write it up.

Do they see the enemy so they have a clue what they are facing? Visual references would include how SG-1/Atlantis did things, Starship Troopers seeing the bugs for the 1st time, etc

Or do I keep the creatures a secret so when they run into them, there's a better chance of the reaction from the team? Doom, Alien(s), Predator, etc

Decisions, decisions. 

I'll probably do 2 versions and see how it flows.

Demon Hunters - Lt Rocker

 MTF: DEMON HUNTERS: #3

I'm kind of taking a lil break from the story. Or at least, it feels like it. I pushed on #2 and the VS: Beach Head vs Zandar stories then dove right into Demon Hunters 3. Part of the idea, in my mind, was that the stories were going to be short and fast. Nothing too deep. But as I wrote #2 (and to an extent VS: Storm Shadow vs Helix), I found myself creating and connecting various aspects of the Zedd Universe, which is most of the fun (in my mind). Demon Hunters 3 brings in the Andromeda Quest project. It's really weird cuz the project is unwritten, but I showed the very 1st few pages of what the 1st story was going to be like. I fully admit, it's based heavily on Stargate: SG-1. It was supposed to be a short, fast, episodic diocomic. But just the few pages I did took a lot of time. It doesn't look like it, but that all took a few weeks (posted on Facebook). In Demon Hunters 3, the Devil Dogs are sent to New Micronia. This is their first time and for the reader (since the project was never written), it's their first time too. What's weird is... If I ever write the Andromeda project, well, how much will I have screwed things up by going forward x-amount of years? It's hard for me on how much to reveal about the project in the story. Because a lot of it happens 'off screen'.

For example, GI Joe continues to battle the Tyranids on this random planet in the Andromeda Galaxy (this is based on the story TRANSFORMATIONS). Eventually, they meet the Microman race (aka Micronians) and they become allies and eradicate the scout force of Tyranids who were just eating up the planet (not dominating it in this instance). There's no official story for that. Or that the Micronians rebuild the Cobra's Anaconda Research Facility on Earth to stablize the gateway (Micronians called it a 'gateway'. Earthlings called it a 'portal'. It's a play on the Chappa'ai vs Stargate terminology from SG-1.) There's also no story for when the Marauder Task Force takes over, the creation of the Off-world Teams, how people ended up on the teams, etc. There is a GI Joe diocomic that introduced OT1 in which, 1 or 2 members get knocked off. (That leads to Lt Falcon and Bombstrike coming aboard and becoming OT1 which is where the Andromeda stories really start; several years already into it.)

It's a lot of fun to write #3. What's fun is I'm finally exploring the Andromeda project. Plus, the Devil Dogs meet the Demon Hunters (who'll be showing up real soon as a regulars) and OT1. Fun little connection but it won't be the main aspect of the Devil Dogs stories. If I can get my act together, the Devil Dogs stories should be wrapping up soon and then they can evolve into the team called The War Hounds. Still working out the details on that, but it's close. Assuming I can remember what I'm doing.

To note, and this is part of today's blog, my writing on this one is much tighter than the last 4 stories? 5 stories? I went through chapters 1-4 the last few days (me taking a break is not writing, the editing/revising/rework is another matter) and for once, I didn't have to write in my notebook, entire sections to add into the chapters. Rather, the edits were minor enough to do on the hard copies (i edit on hard copies, not on computer). I don't know how it happened. It's not like I had grand plans before writing. It just seems to flow better. Maybe the stories written before were good practice on getting my mind better focused.

*raw image of Blitzkrieg and Razor of the Devil Dogs meeting the Demon Hunters, Rocker and Hunter*

 MTF: DEMON HUNTERS: STORY 3: FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF GOD

Crazy and fun times ahead

I started Story 3 after the 1st of the year, but backed off to push VS #2: Beach Head vs Zandar. May have thrown VS #1 in there too (Storm Shadow vs Helix). Demon Hunters 3 is a straight forward story, but due to the setting, I'm dropping the reader into the unwritten Andromeda Quest project. This story takes place something like 10 years or more after the initial events of TRANSFORMATIONS/WAR FOR TERRITORY and x-years after UNFINISHED BUSINESS. There's a very loose timeline of when all this is happening but I think it might be before 2021. Or when the unwritten NEW BREED story takes place, which is a reboot/evolution GI Joe story (new team). There'll be an author's note at the beginning to try and clear stuff up. It'll probably be repeated within the story at certain points too. 

At the moment, the Devil Dogs just stepped through the portal (gateway, I switch terms on the fly. it's not a stargate!). For the 4 main Devil Dogs, it's all new to them. That's the fun of writing it. If I ever do the Andromeda Quest series, the reader will be dropped several years into the adventure. Particularly, Marauders will have already taken it over which will push the timeline to around 2014-2016. The team it will actually follow, I think might be slightly later, 2016-2019 (because the original team, half of them were killed which was written in UNFINISHED BUSINESS). 

In this story, Firenado will still be on the disabled list. 4 others will have joined; technically they are specialists. They help the team but aren't official members. The first chapters will be filling the reader of the Andromeda Project; the crew got a very vague briefing and Knockdown is keeping his mouth shut because he simply wants to them to experience "the greatest secret in human history" without him influencing them. Even their new handler, Whisper, is awestruck. An intel officer, she didn't know about it and like Lt Blitzkrieg, Razor, and Googles, dumbfounded. (Part of how to make things work is what effect this has in the Zedd Universe since Whisper is not quite who she says she is; will it matter much in the FOUR HORSEMEN project???)

The real point of this post... I have physical representations of the Devil Dogs and the Demon Hunters. Because these are custom figures, there's been some painting applied. I don't usually handle the figures due to knowing the paint would chip. And of course, it did as I tried to pose them for the few photos I have of them. Talking to a friend, I was directed on a matte finish that would work best. That was months ago. I finally took the dive and bought a bottle, received last night, and I worked on a couple of the heads. And wow, it looks like it works. This morning, I worked the 3rd head. 2 of them needed slight repaints but it wasn't too bad. (I could only work on 2 heads cuz I only have 2 test bodies. #3 had to wait. I know, TMI.)

Aside from that, the 2 main characters of the Demon Hunters squad are Rocker and Hunter. The 2 main characters of the Devil Dogs are Lt Blitzkrieg and Razor. How it worked out that both sides, it's leader and scout. Setting these guys side by side, I see now they are worlds apart. There was an organic flow in their creation. The Devil Dogs are your standard military squad. They wear official Marauders, uh, gear. (Marauders has a standard look and the Devil Dogs, being a squad amongst squads, is uh, a squad. Like the Iron Fists, Desert Foxes, etc) Both Blitzkrieg and Razor have long, slicked-back hair pulled into pony tails. In some ways, they are male-model/suave looking. Not quite how I imagined them, just how I saw them, if that makes any sense. (The heads were purchased from Spartan118 and I simply liked their look). The Demon Hunters, the main 2, dress differently. They wear t-shirts. Due to them being scouts, I need them to be equipped light so they can move around quickly and easily. Their head choices, I kinda wonder. I feel Rocker's head would have been better as Blitzkrieg's. Rocker has shorter hair and a more hardened look, which is closer to how I envision Blitzkrieg. Maybe a bit Sgt Barnes-ish (Platoon) in personality. Hunter, with his Last of the Mohicans heavy-metal hair style, it actually lends itself more to how I see Razor. Both scouts are Native American, I suppose that's just a casualty of growing up with GI Joe where Spirit was the tracker. Just without the mysticism. 

Check out an upcoming image from Story3: FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF GOD (Yes, that's an Iron Maiden song title)

Devil Dogs on the left (sans Goggles, Trainwreck, and the specialists who don't get figures). Demon Hunters on the right.

 GI JOE: VS: STORY 2 - BEACH HEAD VS ZANDAR

AFTER THOUGHTS

Now that I got it all written and posted, time for a lil reflection.

I've said before that writing a story can take on a life of its own. Ideas pop up, sometimes get put in, etc. How this story started, well, I scrapped it and started over. The original was going to be from the perspective from Zandar. As I was writing it, it started to feel more like a wikipedia entry than a story. I have found with writing, it allows for more exploration of the world and the characters. I've used Beach Head in the diostories and Zandar, I'm not so sure. Maybe in the background. About as much visual time as Zandar in GI Joe Retaliation!

I've stated in the past that doing diostories and traditional written stories are pretty far apart. Diostories are more visual but limited to the space on the frame for text. That would include description, storytelling, and dialogue/monologue/thoughts. The need to describe the setting is no longer necessary. What gets lost is the depth of the characters. The story has to keep moving and there's often no place for a 21- page history of character (Tom Clancy was great at doing this in his pre-2000s books. If not mid-90s and earlier). Due to that, Beach Head never really had much of a personality in my diostories. With how I wrote my stories, I did what I saw fit. There were many characters who never showed up because I didn't know how I wanted them to be. Duke is a prime example of that. Serpentor also. If I wanted to use someone but wasn't entirely sure how, I relied on a mix of cartoon, comic, and filecard. Some versions weighed stronger than others.

I remember now, Beach Head got a lot of time in the diostory GAME OF DEATH. I don't remember exploring his personality in it. His personality was based heavily on the cartoon. With Beach Head being a main character (not THE main character) in this VS story, well, I still kind of skirted around what he's really like. There are some hints and it's still very cartoon based. 

Now, this is where I get into the organic part. The end of the story, the epilogue if that's what you'll call it (there are no chapters because it's supposed to be a short story!), the reader gets a glimpse of what Beach Head is into. That wasn't planned, other than him being in the hospital bed. The plan for that was like this (and notes):

-Beach Head wakes up in infirmary

-Gonzalez and Anders are there to meet him

-Anders hands him the file on Zandar who was an unknown to them (despite Beach Head knowing of Zandar, I was going to play that he didn't know what the guy was about. Not like Zartan. All he knew is Zandar was younger brother.)

-Big long ditty of Zandar which would have been most of the elements from my original draft. But even that didn't feel right. I wanted to keep him remotely mysterious. But it felt like a cheap way to go into Zandar's background, but not so much personality. Visually, it would be Beach Head looking at a file and the reader would see the contents of the file. Instead, I decided to go slightly more modern. Digital voice recorder where Zandar can (kind of) explain why Beachy was hunted. I still don't go into great details or even talk about what Zandar is.

-In the Zedd Universe, Zandar is an assassin. He has the same cloaking/blending ability as Zartan. But he's not a master of disguise. The file would reveal (or the original), that Zandar was pretty much a loner and lived on the streets of NYC (The Bronx, more specifically). A street rat, he watched people. And thus, he learned martial arts from watching and copying the movements. The point, in the end, he had no formal military training. In my mind, that led to the issue of, how could this guy take on a seasoned soldier like Beach Head? Well, Zandar doesn't play fair.

-The beef against Beach Head comes from a failed assassination of a high political officer. It was only dumb luck that Beach Head got in the way. To Zandar, that's reason enough for his hatred. Beach Head, even after the hearing, still wouldn't have a clue what Zandar's talking about. I forgot how Beach Head actually botched it. Like, he wasn't even on duty, just a bystander who got in the way. Or he bumped into the guy moving the target just far enough out of the way so Zandar couldn't take the shot.

-The original message that Anders deciphers, mentioned Beach Head specifically. I chose to leave it out to keep it more mysterious. Like the crew said, nothing's happened the prior 2 weeks. Only at the end, do we get more of the reasoning for the VS. I strongly considered having Zandar spout Shakespeare in the exact same vein as General Chang in Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country. Afterall, Zandar is pounding on Beach Head cloaked! I went light on what Zandar said.

-The diostory was going to be just the two of them. I would have manipulated the photos pretty heavy to make Zandar just a blur during the fight. In another post, I discussed the difficulty of posing these figures whose joints were pretty much locked. The fight scene was stiff and nowhere near how I wanted it. I won't discuss how the setting looks nothing like a dense forest too.

-The voice recorder element would speed everything up and give an explanation to things. The reactions by the Greenshirts ends the story, which I felt was appropriate. Would I have preferred a larger kill count? Yes. But the mission only called for x-amount of units. I needed someone to get back to the rescue team to tell them where to go. Gonzalez, I didn't feel like killing off. In my mind, I questioned whether Zandar would kill a woman. If he had a code. If paid, yes he would. But he wasn't getting paid for this. His target was Beach Head. And it's not written, part of the reason for killing Blue and Smith is that Beach Head would have to deal with their deaths. Part of the psychological warfare Zandar was conducting.

-Beach Head has interests? Or questions? I believe, over time, Beach Head has become more thoughtful. Still hard as a rock. He's getting older and in some ways, more jagged. Yet, he knows when to soften for the good of those around him. Him wondering about the afterlife was completely organic and on the fly. That's the type of characterizations I'm referring to that I can't easily have put in a diostory. It would have taken a few frames which needed to move the story forward.

-I questioned where I should have even let the reader know that the VS is Beach Head vs Zandar. Part of me says, make it more mysterious of the characters involved; just show Beachy. But then, I considered, put the VS characters names and have people curious as to what the story is. Why is there a VS? Not a who is the VS. Tho it's very much written of whom the crew is being hunted by!

-The diostory version was going to end with a big misunderstanding. Beach Head was after Zandar for an assassination. But Zandar would explain, in the end, it wasn't him. In that regard, it was really going to be Beach Head vs Zandar

There are probably a lot more thoughts and ideas, but they escape me as the moment. Here, check out a few raw images of what the diostory would have entailed.