Do I have any dang readers?
Sometimes it's hard to tell. I hate to be all "wah post in the forum" and stuff, but could people please post in the forum? (You don't even have to register or anything, in case that wasn't obvious.)What's good? Bad? Indifferent? Is the story too obvious, too obtuse? What aspects should I focus on? I have a very clear path in mind for what's going to happen — and I want to know I'm on the right one.
Also, what about site things? Obviously I changed the name of the sub-site, and I've also tinkered with some navigation things. Is there anything else I can do to make things a bit better? Should I drop the global "jump to beginning" button since it no longer really makes any sense? (Should it just go to the series list?)
How can I help you to enjoy this?
Comments
-bill
I guess I'm mostly desperate for solid information on the setting, since that's a huge hole in my understanding of where the story is likely to go. Ben Riley's The Midlands has a whole "encyclopædia", i.e. wiki devoted to the story world(s). I don't know that Unity needs anything on that scale, but an expository aside wouldn't bother me.
As to speculation, well, the story so far has left a trail of exploded theories behind it. Most recently I'd thought that all the gibberish was due to Juni and the Machine Juni getting out of synch, but that I just got distracted by the vague similarities to a story from The Mind's I. The incident does put the series title in a new light, anyway.
I guess I'm overly conservative in following the plot - it didn't even occur to me that the green fellow in the next-most-recent strip might be Tamu. I'm half-expecting that there's going to be a complete shift in the frame of reference, but optimistically, I'm willing to believe that there is actually some relevant problem concerning the other characters, and that they're reacting to the situation as themselves and not as the instruments of some experiment.
Also, I can't read "Tamu" without thinking of Texas Agriculture and Mining University.
I haven't decided whether the POV will ever shift. I think it'd have to eventually (or else it'll be The Sam and Juni Show forever) but I haven't planned anything out to that effect. One issue that I'm running into while things are converging is that some potential backstory elements have been negated simply by characters knowing things. (As an example, one idea I had for the reason behind Juni's insanity was discovering that they were in a space ship, but then there was that whole sequence with Juni perceiving a minor hull breach. However, that WAS me consciously setting up a couple of future plotlines, and some of it ends up contributing to the backstory that's gelling. So it's a bit hit-or-miss.)
I wrote that quite some time ago and it was so boring and talky. Also lately I've been trying to make the strips at least a little humorous (of course most of the humor goes into the popup text).
Some of that (or a really early draft of such) is actually semi-visible on the already-outdated creation process document.
As for the lines that didn't make it into the strip; until I learn differently I'm going to imagine that Juni was traumatized when it jacked in and saw the god of internets.
I'm mostly boggled that Sam, Tamu et al were able to make a copy of Juni's memories (that is some pretty miraculous technology) and didn't think that the copy would have a problem with being a disembodied mind. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.
I don't like talky comics because they're freaking boring to draw.
-bill
As far as input, what I think you need to focus on is world building. I mean it takes place in a "constructed ecosystem" but all that has really come up is a beach and some trees. Is there a full spectrum? Is there a mini Mojave dessert out there somewhere?
The majority of the backgrounds/settings are mainly minimalist, but they don't have a unifying design. A unified design for all the equipment would help flesh out the rest of the world, even if we were only seeing it one room at a time. Small details too, like photos of famous landmarks of wherever this takes place, newspapers, water fountaints, electrical outlets, light fixtures, waste baskets etc. Hell, sweeping vistas of the outside world through big ol bay windows! Since your comic is about non-humans in a sci-fi setting, the small details are arguably way more important that if this was just about normal humans in a mundane setting; the reader could fill in a lot more of the blanks with past experiences. Since none of us readers have ever been on a space station populated by aliens (? genetically modified High Evolutionary type animal men?) so we are totally dependent on you to help flesh out the world for us.
It would also help to incorporate more background characters again. In the beginning there were lots of extras and now the plot is kinda centering around the Adventures of Juni and Rourke in the Big Empty Space Station. Just having interns, or technicians doing their day to day thing. Does this space station have rent-a-cops?
The newer strips are a step in the right direction though. The little potted plants in Damu's room, the decorative globe, the little shelf.
Wow, that got outta hand.
Also, is there ever going to be anything on you DA page? Hmmm?
I'm always envious of how most comics seem to have a great established setting with the barest minimum of actual place settings. Pinkerton and Narbonic are two examples which readily come to mind (the latter in particular because Shaenon is always pretty hard on herself for NOT drawing backgrounds, and yet Narbonic didn't suffer at all for it).
Another thing is I actually like the possibility that the reader fills in a lot of those details. Sometimes I feel like I'd be better-suited as a novelist than a cartoonist, but whenever I try to read installment-based fiction online my eyes glaze over and I lose track of it and as a result I can't really imagine that ever being a very popular thing on the Internet.
Also, I don't want to bog things down like science fiction tends to be. I do like to give little hints in the popup text though -- pretty much everything I say there actually is canonical. FWIW.
I don't know what you are talking about with Narbonic though, it has background out the wazoo.
You don't have to get ridiculously talky about the sci-fi aspects. Just have the characters mention it like us normal humans would "Dammit, the optic network is acting up again" "I am going out to pick up some ion cells, do you need anything?" "Hmmm, transit grid construction over by such and such" And the best part, you wouldn't even have to draw the construction grid or optic net. Win/Win.
The cloning technology going on with Juni is probably the only aspect you might need to really flesh out since it currently appears to be one of the major cruxes of the story. But maybe it isn't! Hell, I only know what I have read and I ain't no mind reader.
I've tried to write the dialog in a way that people would talk when they're actually in that world. The technology is transparent to them, and isn't the focus. The only thing that needs to be said about the mind-cloning technology is that it was used to copy Juni's brain patterns - which Sam did explain, although it was heavily obscured by demiJuni's aleatoric ranting.
(I made sure to put it into the transcription though.)