Akonkid wrote:*slow clap*
Welcome back, Sword and Shield (and Ring Mistress)! I've missed you all so very, very much.
It's great to see Ring Mistress doing what she does best. I'll confess, I'm biased, but the art of my Liberty Grove girls is astoundingly sexy (though the Metrobay ones are no slouches either). It's dynamic and fun, but while all that fun is happening, we see the heroes coming to the rescue.... and I'm not sure whether I'm rooting for the heroines or wishing they'd never find them! I feel very conflicted about their arrival.
Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see how it all goes down, but I'm excited to see it happen.
Thanks a lot! And thanks for letting us borrow such sexy characters!
Champ wrote:I have been a follower and fan of this series since its creation.
I was so loyal that I checked this forum twice a day for a year just for an update.
Now that its finally arrived, all I can say is that it was worth the wait!
The artwork is amazing and I love how this first chapter is showing off what Ring Mistress does with all of her slaves at one time. (A fantasy for all evil villains everywhere.)
I am once again soaking in all the action, going over each detail carefully so I can remember how what plays into what, but I am eagerly awaiting the continuation of this story.
For Begbie and Trish, two thumbs up and a bag of candy for you both! You made my day with this!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for sticking with us through all the ups and downs during all this time.
NoneNeeded wrote:I wasn't complaining. I had only meant to give Bergie an excuse to stare at real, large breasted, naked women for 'professional' reasons. I'm sure you guys would let him expense a couple trips to some Gentleman's Club for Artistic reasons. Right?
Oh, I don't think he NEEDS an excuse. In fact, I'm quite sure he's willing to do that all on his own...
Uzobono wrote:I have to admit I'm a *bit* on the fence about this #7 :p. (Incoming criticism)
I liked the artwork, the dialogue and sequencing bothered me a touch...Ring Mistress to me seemed just out of character, during the playful were-cats portion, in S&S, Resort and Prized Displays she seemed a bit more....controlling/dominant?
Begbie explained it a bit above, but our intent with her portrayal in this is not that she's "different" but that this is simply another side of her. She won. She's victorious. She has EVERYTHING she wants and needs and has never faced defeat at this point in her career. When faced with total victory for the first time ever, she lets loose and enjoys herself. She doesn't worry about being "in control" because she has no fear of losing her control. That changes in later stories where her confidence isn't as strong and her desire for dominance and control is stronger due to prior failures.
I realize this was an unavoidable problem, going back to a story whose central villain became pretty much a completely different character than how she was originally written, and I've had to both modify the story to foreshadow her future actions while at the same time trying to ensure she's the same fun-loving mind controller from prior chapters.
Uzobono wrote:Which leads me to the second problem. I think it's important to separate porn from eroticism, porn =/= eroticism, so like...when the orgy was going on that did very little to push my buttons whereas it would have more than done so if..RM/Clarissa/Kitten (or whoever) made love while their friends blankly watched (maybe Terra could then have requested commentary from the spectators). Seeing slaves "take control and do their own thing" defeats a lot of the mc aspect for me.
I 100% agree with you that eroticism =/= porn... But I fully felt working on this that I, in fact, avoided this problem. Yes, the porn is there, but I was fully convinced the MC elements shone through bright and strong and it had FAR more than "just porn" going on. To me, the most erotic parts of this story were the overtly mind control parts, such as Clarissa enjoying her best friend Kitten. Both of them altered so completely and their friendship utterly twisted by Ring Mistress. Neither best friend has even the slightest inkling of rescuing the other. Clarissa instead is overjoyed to be Ring Mistress's lover at the expense of all else, and she's thrilled that her BFF Kitten, who would've fought to the death to save her, is now nothing more than a blissfully happy, mewling sex cat that has JOINED her and would willing offer herself to her whenever she desires.
Or how Liberty Grove's heroines acted in the situation. I'm not sure how familiar you are with them, but the hottest parts to me were dear friends Duality Dame having her way with Kat Krusader (especially given the sexual tension they normally have), making passionate love to one another while Kat Krusader's own daughter, Emerald Tiger, has mindless lesbian sex with Kari's girlfriend a mere few feet away. Mom and daughter both so totally mind controlled and brainwashed that they don't even care that the other is engaged in such naughty, depraved, kinky activities within spitting distance of each other.
To me, that was the heart of this story's eroticism... not the porn. I think a part of the problem is this is the first chapter where Ring Mistress did not enslave someone new and bend them to her will, so maybe the "little details" I was priding myself on got lost and all a few readers could see was blunt and boring sex. To me, the sex was the icing on the cake, but the real tasty bits were how these characters were manipulated and modified by Ring Mistress. She was not so direct in her orders, but their actions amongst those they cared about proved how far she brainwashed them into doing her naughty bidding. They were doing stuff their "normal" selves would NEVER have done.
Uzobono wrote:So while I *do* like sex in comics, it shouldn't take center stage, as the "mind control" is what's heavily erotic not a mistress fingering a slave for example. For all intents and purposes, lately the "mc" in comics has taken a backseat to the sex, which should be the reverse (in my opinion) where the mc *drives* the sex.
As I mentioned before, I'm sorry if my intent was lost, but my intent was entirely that the mind control is what drove the sex scenes. They would never, ever have done any of this on their own accord. They were commanded, got the signal, and did what they did like the mindless little automatons they've become. A character like Megan would have fought to the end before cheating on her girlfriend, and a character like Emerald Tiger is straight as an arrow. Best friends exploring and exploiting each others' bodies, devoted lovers jumping into the arms of total strangers, heroines willfully offering their curvy bodies to their hated enemies... To me, that's where the MC elements shined. It was far from just sex, to me. It was taking these heroines' very core and perverting it into something new, naughty, and nasty. To strip them of their dignity and self-righteousness and leave only the parts of them able to obey and provide pleasure.
Uzobono wrote:The scene with Megan stands out, I'm personally of the opinion that enslavement would take away that portion of hers to *enjoy* the act so she, and the rest of the heroines, would go through a set of routines, rather than inject their own...lust/desires/like/dislikes into the sex.
Ring Mistress, to me, is a bit like Belinda Giolla. She's not really EVIL, and, by most accounts, is actually a rather good mistress. While she always puts her needs front and center, she's not above allowing her minions to experience some of the joy and fulfillment she has. She's ALWAYS been okay with her slaves being allowed to "enjoy" their slavery. I felt she demonstrated that in many of the prior chapters. Kat Krusader certainly was enthusiastically enjoying herself in Chapter 2, Megan was enjoying herself in Chapter 5, and most of the slaves were more than happy to express themselves in Chapter 6.
If this was an earlier chapter, I might agree that Megan could've been kept mindless... but this chapter was all about her victory celebration. She WANTS them to enjoy themselves, but more importantly she wants them to enjoy themselves because SHE is enjoying herself. They're only having fun because their Mistress is, and commanded they do as well. Basically, she's throwing a mind controlled sex party, and who likes going to a party full of dull, unhappy people that don't want to be there?
Uzobono wrote:Kari's behavior doesn't quite match her personality, she's (in contrast to Sword) the...quiet, rational type, not very possessive/grabby with Megan like she'd call her "Mine!"
That was actually completely intentional. In this situation, we have the normally quiet, rational Kari, faced with her first real big test, and we see her growing reckless and overzealous with Megan at stake. They only JUST took their relationship to the next level, and her feelings for her are clouding her judgment.
But on the contrast, we have Mari, the normally hotheaded, go-getter of the two, suddenly getting worried and nervous. She keeps asking Kari if she's ready when in fact she's not sure if SHE is ready. She's suddenly aware of just how big this problem is and how deep they've sunk into it. And her older sister instincts kick in and she becomes protective of Shield, not willing to let her rush in blindly and risk getting hurt or getting into trouble.
This will be explored more next issue, but their actions in this issue are deliberate. They are coming in conflict with their own desires. Can Shield be calm and rational when a loved one is at risk? Can Sword blindly and recklessly rush into battle knowing she's dragging her little sister into danger? Their roles as heroines are coming in conflict with their roles as devoted girlfriend and protective sister.
Uzobono wrote:I think rather than sex, as the orgy could have been implied anyway, or cut down, we *know* from #6 that Terra is *obviously* going to enjoy her slaves, she already did, but more exposition on...what she'd *do* with them in the long term, or have a bit of back and forth of her taunting them.
Maybe we'll disagree, but Ring Mistress isn't exactly the taunting type. She was created with the intent that most of her evil deeds are done simply because she wants to do them, for the sake of science. Unless Ring Mistress has a personal vendetta or grudge against someone else, she could care less. Now, there are exceptions. She would gloat till the cows come home (aka the West Sisters) if Doogan was around to see her victory. She'd gladly taunt in the face of any heroines that defeated her in the past. But, again, this is Ring Mistress's first big mind control adventure. She is undefeated at this point. She's also pretty much unknown. Sword & Shield didn't even know who was committing the crimes until just now. Until this point, she was happy to stay out of the spotlight and let "lesser" villains like Max Indeks play the role of glory hog. She's in it for the science and to prove herself.
And beyond that, I thought I dropped plenty of hints as to what she plans to do with her slaves. Prior issues have shown her setting a few of them up to be sold (as cooks, maids, housewives) while she fully intends to take Clarissa with her, along with her friends. She has no plans of global conquest or city dominance. She is going to retire someplace nice and warm with her lover and her lover's brainwashed best friends-turn-sexpets. She's going to get her "happily-ever-after"... at least, that was her plan.
Uzobono wrote:*Or* a bit more Clarissa/Terra dialogue, like leading into Resort Tales a bit, mentioning the prospect of marriage, maybe foreshadow the changes she makes to Clarissa in the time between?
Next issue. Seriously.
This wasn't the right issue for that. NEXT issue is where things happen. There was no reason for Ring Mistress to worry about her future in this issue. No reason to worry about changing Clarissa, finding a new secret lair, or any of that. Obviously, the end of this issue shows that her little secret paradise has been compromised... and NEXT issue will explore the ramifications of that. Have some faith on this one.
Uzobono wrote:Overall, while it's ok, I think after such a long time, doing an issue that's *mostly* sex isn't as strong as heavy exposition, developing Ring Mistress a bit more, and foreshadowing bits of Resort/Prized Displays possibly. Obviously the next issue is focusing on the conflict and maybe(?) RM using her slaves to make her escape, but seeing an interaction between Kari and a (controlled) Megan would be *really* good, and a lot more dialogue about some of *why* RM did what she did (as explaining it to the heroines).
/hides
This was a no-win for me. I had dozens of people writing me over the months saying they wouldn't be satisfied unless the new issue was super-hot and had lots of mind controlled women doing naughty things. I had people writing me demanding that I resolve all the plot points immediately and quickly. I was never going to please everyone in just one issue... but the ending is NOT just "one issue". It's going to be two. I feel a big problem is that Resort Tales and Prized Displays are hanging around like a thick stone around this story's neck, which was never the original case, and I now have to please two masters. I'm going to do so, but this story was never intended to foreshadow or lead-in to Resort or Prized Displays. One of the reasons we decided to split the ending into two chapters was because of those new issues. Rather than write the story the way we originally intended, we now have to add in all those new and surprising details that didn't exist in the original drafts. The draft is done, but the scope swelled in size.
But it's frustrating to no end to see all these complaints pop up and I'm pulling my hair out going "All of this is addressed in the next issue! The NEXT issue! It's right there in my outline! I wish they could just SEE!"
But all I can do is say "trust me, your answers are coming... now please enjoy the current issue for what it is; a transitional issue." And it is. It's a transitional issue, between the sex and the action, between the past events and future events, between the original story and the new, modified story, between the old artist and the new artist, and between ultimate victory and inevitable defeat. This was my "comeback" issue, and for that it needed to be fun, it needed to be happy, it needed to be sexy, it needed to be kinky and naughty, it needed to be upbeat, and it needed to be accessible. It'll make the contrasts with the next issue, when taken as a whole, much more glaring and powerful when it occurs.
Trust me.
! also i did not enjoy the sex that much maybe its too use to 3D sex, but i want to see more action! the trio rushing to save their friends is very good! the next issues must have a lot of worry for Ringmistress with them at her door!
