Trollbabe Comic continues to rock

[lumpley]

Just thought it worth mentioning.

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Thank yew! I really like the story which just finished up this week, which I think Rod illustrated with great mastery.

I'd like to add that this week concludes One Whole Year of Trollbabe comics!!

The story "Holy Trollers" is now available at James' website, so the whole saga should be readable (links to be fixed at the TB website soon). Next week begins the story "Dusty Musty Wisdom," illustrated by James Linares.

Best,
Ron

[Matt Snyder]

Any chance you & (insert artist here!) would consider including, say, a page of Trollbabe comics in Daedalus?

[Ron Edwards]

No problem, Matt. Which would you like? That'd be about four strips, or maybe one of the six-strip stories if you squeezed the size a little.

Best,
Ron

[jburneko]

Okay, I just read the ending.  That was funny.  Very very funny.

Jesse

[Matt Snyder]

I'd prefer to get a full six-strip "issue" in the zine. I'd love to include "Sex, Death, and Music," but any of the stories is fine.

(Edit: How do I get higher resolution -- assuming they exist -- versions of the strips?)

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Matt,

You have my permission to use "Sex and Death, with Music" in Daedalus. Note the correct title - people have been known to alter it by accident, which even applies to the webmaster for my site.

Regarding format issues, you'll have to talk to James.

Jesse, I was wondering about your reaction to this story. I'd hoped it would have enough background-meat to satisfy you about the larger picture, but also have enough "this story only" bite to be worth its time alone. Rod deserves the commendation for prompting me to re-write my first draft to make Gwyneth more interesting.

Both Rus and Gwyneth are prime candidates for returning characters.

Best,
Ron

[Matt Snyder]

Hi Matt,

You have my permission to use "Sex and Death, with Music" in Daedalus. Note the correct title - people have been known to alter it by accident, which even applies to the webmaster for my site.

Very good. Not sure if I botched the title myself, or whether I was reading from the site itself (likely the former!). I'll contact James.

Thanks!

[lumpley]

Along the lines of background-meat, Ron, I'm interested in your writing.  The stories themselves are spare; I can't imagine how you'd spread the panels any more thinly.  I like it a lot.  Short-short fiction is my fave.  

Can I ask a couple random questions?  The stories build: how far in advance have you planned, and especially, do you have end points in mind?  Have you written any Trollbabe prose fiction, and was it as spare?  Do you think in story terms first and then translate into panels, or are the panels present at every stage of the process?

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Vincent,

That spare-ness is a deliberate constraint on my part. Most cartoon strips are four to six panels, for instance; I'm making the "gutter" (Scott McCloud's term) work extra hard. It also goes with my desire to produce the following relationship:

one story = one strip = one conflict = one decision = one consequence

... despite the number of details or questions about the background arising in each one, which as far as I'm concerned can proliferate like madly-mating fireflies.

how far in advance have you planned, and especially, do you have end points in mind?

I wrote all of the stories so far published within one month, over a year ago. I deliberately planned nothing beyond the year's content, hoping that the aforementioned firefly details would provide enough inspiration for the next step. Whether they did or not, will have to be judged by readers of the strips that follow, most of which I wrote about two months ago.

Have you written any Trollbabe prose fiction, and was it as spare?

I haven't written any or even conceived them. Trollbabe stories exist, for me, strictly in the medium of role-playing and (separately) in the medium of comics. I can't imagine them in prose, at all - not the style, not the length, not the scope of topic, nothing.

Do you think in story terms first and then translate into panels, or are the panels present at every stage of the process?

I take a very structural approach. I'll start with a general premise (yes, Premise) and sometimes some one-liners. I may or may not have a strong idea of the conclusion.

Then I outline a page with rows of three panels and write, to the left of each row, what generally happens in that "week." Usually I've set the number of weeks in advance, based on my notion of how much meat there is for a given premise, but that can change, especially at this stage.

Finally, I'll write in each panel-box what sort of images, dialogue, and events occur. This process usually isn't linear. If I get stalled out, that's usually a sign that one or both of the previous stages needs to get re-considered in full, and I've been known to start over entirely, or to re-work a story after deciding that a particular week's work is taking over the whole thing.

The point is that I'm thinking in terms of "Point" at the beginning, but swiftly moving to a strictly vision-based and motion-based context. How much can be said, for instance, is constrained by panel size and whatever has to be seen in the panel, as well as the more general constraint that operates between words and pictures simultaneously.

I love writing comic strips and working with the artists. I hope to continue it indefinitely, if not for Trollbabe, then for other stuff as it occurs to me.

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

Cool!  I see exactly what you mean about the gutter.  There's a corresponding thing in prose that I like to play with.

Do you think of Trollbabe's mechanics while you're writing?

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Vincent,

Never.

I consider role-playing and comics (and film, and prose, etc) to be different media entirely and never cross-reference while writing the comics.

However, it does go the other way. I frequently use verbal references to film, prose, and comics techniques when role-playing ...

... but not while playing Trollbabe! Isn't that interesting?

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

Ron, that is interesting.  What's up with that?

I'm a bit surprised about the mechanics: I'd've expected you to think sometimes in terms of Stakes and Scale.  You really don't?

(Most of my games I can't imagine in fiction at all.  It's as you say, different bugs, different impulses, entirely.)

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Vincent,

What's up with that? Dunno. Maybe because role-playing has no sensory basis for its experiential nature (much like prose/text), yet relies on constant input among people (group communication). So we use the idioms of other media as touchstones for the communication, in an ad-lib fashion.

This happens among other media all the time: cinema constantly makes use of comics (I'm talking about literal cinematic techniques, not content), and prose/literature constantly makes use of cinema ...

Anyway, regarding Stakes and Scale, I submit that all story creation is concerned with Stakes and Scale. Trollbabe-the-game just makes it explicit for the medium of role-playing; Trollbabe-the-comic is indeed concerned with Stakes and Scale, but that doesn't link or ally it with the game in any special way.

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

Mornin'.

No, I meant what's up with not using movie/comic/prose references when you play Trollbabe?  That's very curious.  I haven't played Trollbabe but I'd'a guessed that in play it'd be just natural to have cuts, fades, zooms, slow motion, instant replays from over here this time, reaction shots, all kinds of movie stuff.  Don't you even recommend it in the text?  (Maybe not, maybe that's just me bringing my impressions to my memory of it.)

Otherwise, I getcha.

-Vincent