I’ve been once again focusing my time on the Doris Danger semi-interactive web-comic this week. In particular, Doris’s origin story. I’ve put together her first published origin story. Chapter 6 from volume 1. Then I jumped ahead and posted her abduction story (Chapter 16) from Monstrosis (vol. 2). Then I included an exciting “Tabloia offices all-dialogue sequence,” page 70-71 from Monstrosis where Doris meets her boyfriend, Steve.
(Some of these sequences, the navigation isn’t completely updated, but I’ll get there. Thanks for your patience! There are also some nice GIANT MONSTER pages in there!)
So you may be noticing, this is all “originy” stuff, but it’s really jumping around.
THAT’S what has been the most complicated, and what I’m very excited about, and has taken the most work: organizing Doris’s chronological origin story – which begins HERE, as the sixth panel on the page, in flashback. Then it jumps through a couple flashbacks, and THEN – if you want it to be “chronological” – it has to come back to those pages of flashbacks and hit through the NON-FLASHBACK panels of those pages (because those would come AFTER whatever she had been thinking about), and then on from there! In addition to this crazy problem… there were a bunch of other crazy problems I bumped into!
The reason it’s been so challenging and so rewarding is this. The whole pseudo-intellectual concept of Doris Danger comics is that they are “old issues” of a series that has been running a long time, and that you, reader, have managed to get your hands on here and there, but not chronologically. This is a “pre-Netflix binge-watching sequentially in order” era. One week you pick up an issue at a super market. Then your friend gives you an old issue. Then you pick another new issue up, a few months later. There are holes in your continuity, and you slowly fill in those holes as you go to a back-issue store and pick up a few more, while continuing to read the new ones you manage to find. I “published” them in this fashion, to remind us of how we used to read comics.
I added a FREE commentary video on this very above subject, which EVERYONE can enjoy: childhood comics chronologies. (I also talked about it on the page 000b inside front cover – Commentary.)
For $7 Patrons, I also added our 27th weekly “Diary of a Struggling Comics Artist” entry, YA fiction, Shade the Changing Girl, and Wonder Woman writer Cecil Castellucci (approx. 4:00). This Thursday, you can also look forward to an entertaining interview with actor Thomas Jane and Tim Bradstreet about their comics publishing ventures (approx 3:30). Pop over to the “Diary” index to see where that gets posted.
I apologize it’s a bit light on “bonus features” this week, however I did the ol’ giant monster hand pin-up, with its variations ($4 Patrons each), and some commentary ($1 Patrons) about it. I’ve got one volume one story to go – Buck Mercury’s appearance – and then it’s time to really get the all-new full color pages incorporated into the semi-interactive web comic!
Until then… Thanks as always, I hope you enjoy!