New Free Comic! "Sword & Shield"

[Trishbot]

Early morning post here so it might be a *bit* groggy-ish

Oh no don't take it as complaints, a complaint isn't the same as criticism Trish . (Like above Sumatra posted "Hated the furries.", that's a complaint...it doesn't really help :p).

It's why I said I'm a bit on the fence, I *am* waiting to fully decide when it's all said and done. These were just my opinions, there was no rationalization needed, whatever the comic is written as is decided by you, not...by majority or council or w/e :p.

Yeah. This issue does not exist in a vacuum. It's supposed to work just fine with all the issues that came before it. I planned it out that way, and there's another one left to come. The "flow" isn't there because the story isn't complete. It's like saying Batman is acting out of character when he makes a weird choice in one issue, only for the next issue to explain why he did it. Those answers are coming.

On *that* though I think it's important to note that S&S, Clarissa, and Ring Mistress *are* McTek's characters so I think he should weigh in, but it just seemed to *me* personally that they were out of character a lot, for example...(trying to come up with a good one, I swear!)..

I should clarify a lot of things on that. For starters, I've been writing the dialogue for Sword & Shield since the very beginning. Every word of dialogue out of their mouths, all those personality quirks and character banter, was stuff I did. We collaborated on that since the beginning. I was there at the beginning. We spent HOURS talking about their character traits and qualities. We still do, frequently.

Secondly, I should state that the outline I'm using is the same outline MC Tek and I were originally working on that he approved. The story beats, the events, the character actions, all of that hasn't really changed, and all of it was created in collaboration with MC Tek. The only major change is Begbie took over art duties. If he hadn't, the story would largely be unchanged with Tek's art. The writing would have largely been the same. I haven't kept MC Tek in the dark about this. I've shown him frequent updates and progress reports.

But I do bristle a bit at the notion that I'm "screwing up" and writing them "out of character". Not a single, solitary character is being fundamentally changed, and all of them are going to end up right in line with future stories. It's bothering me quite a bit to hear that, considering how much thought I put into their actions, all their little secondary details and opinions, and how much I felt it resonated and worked. And I didn't do it in isolation. It's troubling to me that the story is pretty much the exact same as the one I was working on with MC Tek, but my handling of these characters is called into question.

I'll get into that a bit after this.

If I wrote..Ms. Metrobay and I would of course ask Doctor Robo for how she speaks, what she *wouldn't* say or act like in any circumstance (sans mc of course) so if I had her talking like a 17th century colonial woman to the squad and hitting on every new member, I'm pretty sure it would sound "off". (Granted that's *really* extreme ;P)

I haven't heard any particular example of how any of my characters are acting "out of character" yet.

But, beyond that, I am a firm believer that for characters to truly thrive and grow and develop, they need to be exposed to new writers, new artists, new ideas, and new directions. And sometimes that means taking characters in directions the original creators didn't anticipate.

Finister Foul certainly didn't plan on MC Tek taking his character Fluffy, a cute Asian sidekick and best friend of Kitten, and turning her into an Amazonian German evil daughter of Von Ick that spent years with a Ms. Metrobay-clone as her maid. Fin didn't plan on his sweet, naive police cadet, Crissy Tanner, becoming a cold and ruthless robot slave under Doc Robo's pen. Under Fin's pen, Ms. Metrobay has become an actual human cow while several important heroines are serving a Black Hat-possessed Snowflake. Under MC Tek's direction, my heroine Hypnotica was attacked and brainwashed by Black Pussycat and turned into a school-girl spy... not MY original intent or any plans I'd do for her.

But in every last single story I have ever done, I have approached heroines, both new and old, and I refuse to do a story with them unless I can develop them in a new way. That doesn't mean I completely change them, but I have to have a reason for using them, and I have to develop them. They never, ever stagnate. That means I do a story with Goldwing, and I explore her love life. I do a story with Valor Girl, and I explore her struggle and self-confidence at resuming her career after an absence. I do a story with Violet Star, and I explore her longing for companionship. I do a story with Babydoll, and I explore her motivation for being a villain. I do a story with Valient Grrl, and I explore her struggles and self-image issues. I do a story with Alpha Woman, and I explore her struggles as a leader in the shadow of her mother. I do a story with Enchantress, and I complete her journey from callous villain to reluctant hero.

If you want characters to be completely untouched and exactly the same in my stories as they are before, then I don't think you'd ever like any of my stories. I will never do a story with an "interchangeable" heroine or villain. They're all there because I have a plan for them, and I've had a plan for Sword, Shield, Ring Mistress, and Clarissa, and, trust me, it falls in line with Tek's plans for these characters (both past and future).

I don't approve of everything Fin, MC Tek, or Doc have done with my characters, but I fully and completely support and approve them doing it anyway, in spite of my hesitance, because using them in new ways has given characters like Enormica, Hypnotica, and Shawna Leela Patel, characters I created, new life and new ideas and new directions to explore. I did not always "approve" them, but I will almost always allow it.... unless something happens I extremely disagree with (I didn't allow a scene for Enormica to get a broken jaw in a fight, for example).

Variety is what keeps these comics alive and fresh. This is turning into a rant, but in summary, I worked on this with MC Tek; he's basically been the shadowy presence in this entire story, and his hand is heavily involved, despite his desire to move on from this story and allow me to finish it without his direct involvement. It's the same involvement as before, and I've been the one constantly doing the "voice" of these characters in this story since the first panel. None of that changed.

But even if I DID decide to do something drastic, and I would ask permission for something drastic, that doesn't mean it's bad. I was heavily criticized by some people for turning Enchantress into a hero, for example, but I absolutely feel it was the perfect path to take her down and flesh her out with. Fin wasn't sure it would work at first, but her shift in character was dynamic and has left her as one of the most interesting heroines on the team. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, even knowing many people didn't approve. But for this story, it was all pre-planned years ago, and the plan has shifted very, very little.

It's just my personal kink though for the favor of a slow burn, which I think S&S could have benefited from (like Kari *isn't* just panicky and possessive as she nears Megan, she's been...torn for a while, etc) and I realize that with 2D a slow burn set of comics would take....a long time.

It's been nearly two years... I don't think I could afford a "slow burn" at this point. I'm STILL getting harassed elsewhere for taking as long as I did. I think if I did a slow burn at this point, they'd burn my house down.

Besides, just glancing above, some are STILL saying the story was "too slow" for this issue and they wanted more plot and action. *sigh* Next issue, dammit. Next issue is all the action you can shake a mind controlling dildo at (shameless plug for "A New Toy".)

[Uzobono]

Eep..it's getting a *bit* hostile so I'd like to tone it down a bit .

I just mentioned specifically RM and S&S being "out of character" (I'll redact Clarissa because she's mc'd/bimbo anyways), but..."out of character" to me rang..RM not elaborating or having a dialogue *about* what she's done, or getting praise for *it* from her slaves. For example, in the scene where she describes the cats in heat, rather than call Clarissa stupid, some type of...confirmation dialogue to Clarissa about what she'd do to "help these kitties" would have worked better for me, as it would have shown her *bit* of dependence to Clarissa, to hear what she wants to hear so to speak.

As it is, Terra seemed almost as bimbo-ish as Clarissa, whereas in S&S 5(?) or 6 (I think) when she first modifies her there was a real connection between them, and it carried over to Resort, so a bit of that was missing for me.

Characters obviously grow all the time, but since this story is happening in this weird time where RM/Clarissa's characters *have* reached their conclusions, it seemed more they should follow into what they're *going* to be doing. (Not so much Clarissa, but RM for example could've been a bit more appeasing toward Clarissa, "yes she's a bimbo but she's a bimbo I want to make happy" sorta way)

But obviously I'd like to hear from McTek about this so I'm not like totally wrong.

As for slow burn, I don't mean issue wise, and this is just something personal of mine, mccomix in general doesn't do it, the only exceptions would be Crissy and...sort of Valient Grrl.

I meant slow burn more like exploring the *way* a heroine submits or is mc'd, so just for S&S, in terms of RM she *grows* to care for her slaves (which I think she isn't like Belinda in that aspect, Belinda I don't think "loves" her slaves at all, she's a true domme). That would obviously take a while and a few issues that isn't available, but my little quibble was that I was thinking "MMmm I'd like to have seen Terra ask her slaves how happy they are, with a confirmation dialogue that they *can't* be anything *but happy, instead of a couple more sex scenes."

So slow burn to me is the process of mind control or the submission/acceptance of it rather than slow character progression, but that's not really fair as all the mc is near instant anyway (moot point.)

Plus I think action doesn't necessarily need to be just 100% plot or 100% fighting or w/e, some heavy interaction between an enslaved Megan/Kari would do wonders (like how would Kari react *then*, and that would make her *really* panicky/emotional right then).

/hides :p

[Trishbot]

Eh, I was just a bit grouchy this morning. Thunderstorms kept me up and I only JUST got some food in my belly. Amazing how a little nourishment, energy, and a shower can perk up your mood.

[kakyo001]

I thought this story could become the topic of a debate about the characters but the length of the discussion surprises me

the problem is: we know to much about the later events and thus we think we know the characters better than the writer (which is unfair as the story is written by different people)

I think everyone should remember that this story is set way before the events of the other stories and is a introduction of the character... as Trish said several times: "RM doesn't know defeat yet" ...
characters develop once they're given a challange and so far RM wasn't challenged at all...

and people expected this to be the final issue (as it was touted years ago)... but the plans have changed and some people didn't noticed the update-post (creating even more confusion)

my 2 cents

[begbie_rentonspud]

Wow... Here I was about to post something about taking these criticisms pretty hard... You'd figure that you learn how to take critiques in art school years ago, you'd still be able to take them... But ouch... Not true at all. I got soft.

Anyway, thanks for the critiques. No matter how hard they made me pump my fist or how hard they rocked me back like a punch in the jaw. I get it, there's no pleasing the peeps. But every little bit of the previous issues has their hand in this current one. Shield being highly irrational. Sword being the stronger head of the two (and of the three once Jupiter Justice has her feelings for Emerald Tiger come into play). Ring Mistress sex party. It's all built up to this point...

And then the party's over. This is where "I" wanted to end it. That was the most logical place in MCTek & Trishbot's outline and make for another issue, because quite frankly, the second half of that outline is really a three part act and to house that along with this issue... so much could be lost. And also for my sanity's sake . I also did it for the readers. This was the moment to stretch before the mad dash and I wanted to see, for myself, the crowd's reactions. Some quite a bit more stinging than I thought but it's great to get a feel out for what "you" are looking for... Even though, again, little bits and pieces are kinda explained in the earlier issues. But the progressive questions? I will answer them to my best (which some think isn't really my best) through the visuals. Trishbot will do with her words. And MCTek's laid foundation in the follow-up story will be connected.

Now, if you will excuse me, I can't keep looking up on the many boards to see what people thought of this issue because I have a number 8 to draw up and quite a few action movie sequences to watch. You want your action? Imma give it to ya!

~Begs

[Champ]

Wow...this took an hour to read. XD! Full fledged discussion outbreak!

[Akonkid]

Wow...this took an hour to read. XD! Full fledged discussion outbreak!

Maybe you'll disagree with me, but I think lots of discussion is the marks of a good story. I read some people saying it's too long, too short, too much sex, out of character, etc., and the shows that, at the very least, it got people to pay attention and made an impression on them they feel strongly about, even if that impression can be either right or wrong (depends on how things ultimately pan out).

I do think this story requires a bit of "mental regression" on the part of readers. In many ways, it's hard to think of Ring Mistress just starting off when she's been out of the picture for so long, or Sword & Shield on their first major team-up together, but to me it's a bit like the new Spider-man movie. If you can sort of "rewind time" in your head, then, yeah, their actions make a lot of sense when disconnected from the people they eventually become.

Though I DO see a lot of foreshadowing already. I don't see how people can miss it. It's so painfully obvious Ring Mistress is fully committed to Clarissa now, at the expense of her original goals. The way she talks to her implies she can't imagine a future without her at this point, and she, in turn, does want her to have some happiness too (even if she's controlling her). I think that's still very much in-character for our dear little mad scientist with a heart of gold (okay, maybe bronze).

[begbie_rentonspud]

I think that's still very much in-character for our dear little mad scientist with a heart of gold (okay, maybe bronze).

Eh... Silver, since she's in-between.

~Begs

[Sumatra]

Maybe you'll disagree with me, but I think lots of discussion is the marks of a good story. I read some people saying it's too long, too short, too much sex, out of character, etc., and the shows that, at the very least, it got people to pay attention and made an impression on them they feel strongly about, even if that impression can be either right or wrong (depends on how things ultimately pan out).

Not always. Look at Mass Effect 3. Terrible story overall. Panned by literary examination. That's not a get out of jail card for not ripping into something.

Was an alright story, wish it had no furries still. Comments are good to read though some good points being made.

[Akonkid]

Maybe you'll disagree with me, but I think lots of discussion is the marks of a good story. I read some people saying it's too long, too short, too much sex, out of character, etc., and the shows that, at the very least, it got people to pay attention and made an impression on them they feel strongly about, even if that impression can be either right or wrong (depends on how things ultimately pan out).

Not always. Look at Mass Effect 3. Terrible story overall. Panned by literary examination. That's not a get out of jail card for not ripping into something.

Was an alright story, wish it had no furries still. Comments are good to read though some good points being made.

Actually, I think Mass Effect is a perfect example because, "overall", the series was INSANELY good. Nobody would've cared about the crappy ending that ME3 had if the rest of it was terrible. But that wasn't the case. Everything prior to the finale of the game, the two prior games in their entirety, are heralded as some of the most effective, mature, and well-received narratives in the entire medium of gaming. That made the "terrible" ending stick out so much, and caused so much uproar. Trust me, I've played dozens of games with far worse endings, but ME3's standards were so high, and that made people CARE. Regardless of how you feel about those endings, you cannot argue that people didn't grow to care strongly about the series.

But, unlike ME3, this series is not over. I find it unfair to judge a story prior to its completion. Sure, you can pick things you like or not like (I, for one, love the "furries"), but it's a bit presumptuous to judge an entire story prior to its final (and most important) ending. Trust me, if ME3's ending had delivered, everyone would have loved it, and even the Extended Cut fixed MOST people's major problems with the ending, so even using the example of ME3 isn't exactly accurate since they acknowledged and addressed the most major criticisms and clarified a lot of their thoughts that were lost in translation.

And that's not a "get out of jail" card for this story. I find the story of Sword & Shield to be one of the most interesting and exciting on this entire site (especially visually). It's got charm, character, and creativity, yet it doesn't get bogged down in melodrama or ridiculous twists and shocking revelations. It balances both eroticism, plot, humor, and character development very well. None of the women in this story are faceless generic heroines; they all bring something unique and new to the story, and this current story (furries or no furries) brings just as much ample character motivation and charming personality quirks as prior chapters in my eyes.

Most of the stuff people are demanding are things that were already explained and developed in prior chapters or later stories. We already KNOW Terra and Clarissa's relationship, both in this story and future stories. Do we really need every single issue to remind us? We already know what's at stake with Kari and Megan. Do we need it beat into our heads? We already know what Terra's goals and desires are. Do we really need to waste time going over them again instead of having actual hot and enjoyable content?

This issue was something fun and something new for her to do. As Begbie and Trishbot mentioned, she's celebrating. I have not yet seen a single story with Terra on top of everything, with all her goals reached and ambitions realized. I'm having just as much fun as she is, and I'm legitimately confused what people want. It's already been said over and over that their big plot-heavy resolution is what's coming up next. Nothing whatsoever in prior issues (or any issue Trishbot has written) leads me to believe they'll drop the ball on that.

Is the story perfect? No. I would have written it differently myself. Done different things with different characters. Used different personalities for my heroines. But that's not a flaw of this story; that is merely the voice of the chosen artist and writer. If I wanted Doc Robo or Finister Foul or MC Tek or Northern Chill to write a story with my characters in their voice, I'd ask. But this is my characters with Trishbot's voice, and I absolutely would demand it be different than MY voice. If it wasn't, what's the point of letting her use them?

The more I re-read this chapter, the more little details I pick up on. Skimming this issue might disappoint a reader, I imagine, but there's a lot of meat here and a lot of content buried beneath the surface (or I'm crazy and just imagining it). I have full faith that Trishbot and Begbie_Rentonspud will NOT "pull a Mass Effect 3" on us. There's zero reason to believe they would.

[Uzobono]

Eek, out of hiding!

I think this needs to back up a bit..let's be realistic, comparing a erotic *comic* to a multi-million dollar franchise , that's....going into delusional territory a bit.

There are only a handful of lines of dialogue in every comic that's done here so...we can't read too much into it, otherwise...it tends to get carried away...like it is now >.>.

@Sumatra: I don't think it's quite fair to compare ME3 to erotic comics :p, unless it was the reference of taking characters "out of character", which was a lot more of an issue in that story.

@Akonkid: I don't quite agree with your assessment, while I'm on the fence and not reaching a full conclusion until I see it I *do* think you're reading into the story a bit too much (not to offend ). 24 pages in *any* story, unless written by...a literary genius, will...not impact in the way you're describing, unless you have a confirmation bias *to* want that impact in the first place.

So, I think of course, everything can be better, or...written much differently if another writer tackles it, but that shouldn't be a dismissal of the criticism of the original piece.

[MacroLass]

.
Well *I* for one enjoyed this thoroughly.

As folks may know, I've been one of the more vocal critics of RingMistress but I got caught up in the infectuous fun of this issue. The cartoony and less realistic art of Begbie seemed very appropriate for a sexual "romp" and made the cat girls look appropriately furry and lushly curvaceous. I'm not a huge fan of anthromorphs per se but in this case taking Pink Pusscat and her Action Cats to the logical conclusion of being sex pets worked much better, especially with this art style, than I would have thought. The color palette for the cat girls was well chosen too and they really *popped* off of the page, so much so that the normal women almost seemed dull in comparison.

All in all it was a fabulous effort and I look forward to the next issue with great interest.

I have my own thoughts to add in on some of the bigger controversies that this story has seemed to bring up (which Trishbot's spoken very eloquently on) but I don't want my praise for both her and Begbie to get lost in the middle of another huge block of text.

[Northern Chill]

Well, since everybody seems to be weighing in on this issue, I'd thought I'd post my opin and try to keep it under a thousand words or a huge block of text..

- Artwise, I really enjoyed this update...great linework, colors, character expressions..all top notch and excellent composition.

- Writing/plot wise...for a 24 page update, 16 pages were devoted to sexy/steamy scenes so if someone suggests there's deep plot in this, it's not there no matter how many you read it. I'm not crazy bout Ringmistress' seeming obliviousness to the possibility other heroines would look for their missing friends.

It's a nicely drawn update that advances the story very little plot wise...I think some might have expected more after a lengthy hiatus but its the nature of Trish to write like this.

Northern Chill

[mctek]

Hey gang!

Whoa... (Yes, I'm quoting bill and ted, and not in a good way.)

Ok let's start with zee Art...

Begbie has pretty interesting style, and carries more cartoonish energy then what my past and current style of 2D art consists of. It's neither a good thing nor a bad thing. What I would have liked to have seen is more background work. Most of the work has little to no background to give a sense of space and dimension. Anatomy also needs some attention, while I'm aware this is a cartoon like style, some characters feel forced into a pose or feel oddly posed due to the size of the panel, may I recommend some Andrew Loomis anatomy art books for references? I also know some sites that would help with some tough angles as well.

I do agree this is some really good work, improving in those other areas would really strengthen your work and create a much better flow, an old art teacher once told me to do sequential work, you have to practice daily, try to tell a story without words. Its help me pretty well with other work I'm doing as well.

Keep up the good work Begbie!

Ok and now for zee story itself....

Not sure where to begin so i guess I'll start off by laying down some facts.

1. Finister Foul did not have any plans for Fluffy beyond her only appearance in face the music comic. As such, he personally gave me full control over the character as part of "welcome to the group" / had no more intentions of using said character. While not made public knowledge, it was known to everyone including Doc, Trish and those who work in Metrobay.

2. Any and all major decisions are outlined and discussed primarily first with Doc and Fin and then later filter to those working in Metrobay. At the end of the day, I am still bound by Doc and Fin's word. Not all my ideas made it to paper; there were many ideas that did not make it into Chain Reaction's two part story arc.

3. There were some fun ideas for Mynx, Solaria, Snowflake, and Hyp, due some negative feedback, it was best decided to simply leave them as is and return them to normal upon the end of Chain Reaction's plot.

4. Any ideas for sword and shield were made 2 years ago, and such many things have changed, thus not all those ideas should apply now. In those 2 years, many things have changed, as I have worked to flesh out my characters were I could and made adjustment to characters as needed.

5. There is no script for issues 1-6, and as such I was drawing the story from memory, with Trish adding dialogue and adding post work. In that time we did discuss what each character said, looking back, most of it was done on impulse, mostly on my part to get done on a timely matter. The last and actual script for sword and shield i do have called for a 30 page blowout of mostly action and plot, very little of sex was involved for two reason...A.) I wasn't ready or comfortable at the time with doing sex, it took Doc a month and half to convince me to do that ted/lisa scene in gynoid dilemma, i think (could be less.) and B.) A personal reason that ended my 2D tenure for MCcomix, and have since worked in Poser art.

Alright with that out of the way...you guys may wanna hold your noses, here comes the cold water.

First kudos to Uzo for taking part in a debate, the best way to get to know the fans is to mingle with them. ^_^

I agree with NoneNeeded, Sumtra and UzoBono, this issue for all the promotion done for it came off as flat and lacking. There isn't a direction or point to the issue other then sex. While sex is one of the main points for our comics, a full whole romp issue of it seem overkill to me and brought down the flow of the story. To add to poor flow, characters are actually out of character. As I do not have anymore direct involvement to the story, thus I was not aware of many things until this issue came out.

Let's start with the twins, sword and shield, whose origins I have fleshed out since. They are not inexperience noobs, hey have been train by their stepmother, the former Gadget Gal on use of their powers, without having to go into uber detail should include how to deal with villains when living in a city full of them. And should be accustom to how mind control works and recognize when they see it. Shield is completely out of character as she would not have charged in like that as she is the more responsible and calmer of the two. Nor is she a needy/grabby person to refer to Megan as "my Megan" (why do I get flashbacks to jpeger's legion story..."MY CHASE!")

I guess the best way to describe each sister, is like this (go green lantern reference!)

Sword: Is a leaky faucet waiting to explode, Full of raw emotion and willpower, and is head strong and willing to jump into a fight to defend others.

Shield: A true thinker, she is always building plans, from the inside out. Shy and soft spoken, she rarely gives off an imposing presence.

Ok on to Ring Mistress aka Terra.

While I agree she hasn't experience a super villain defeat, she has had many personal defeats and should be reflected in the character and has been stated in other comics that she is a woman that plans ahead. So for her to be in total shock that heroines arrived on the scene is out of character. Likewise her putting down Clarissa, she already lowered her IQ and semi debased her, why put her down like that? She's suppose to be in love with Clarissa. While I'm at it, if she took out all the bad memories how did Clarissa remember her break up?

Clarissa

Okies, I realize she was made dumb, but not that dumb. This makes her sound really childish and kind of a turnoff. The idea was she lower her IQ enough to not question the moral value of commands given too her or thoughts and notions implanted in her mind. This comes completely different from that idea. While I am guilty of making her very bimboish in Resort, she wasn't to the point were she had to ask what they were doing with their pussies presented to her.

The Werekitties

Man I regretting this idea, it was suppose to be a fun poke at Fin's girls, which he did get a kick out of seeing that way. Really they weren't meant to be actual sexpets, more like bodyguards and attack cats. With house pet on the side, to see it evolve to this is kind of eyebrow raising.

The Nanodolls (pre resort dolly look)

While they're made up of akon's girls, they are in fact the first version of the nanodolls, while not on the crazy stuff level I had in Resort. They do run by programs and as such did not have any emotions to work off. So ET's bimbo behavior is a pre generated persona that used ET's knowledge to fill in blank spots. So even if the Ring Mistress ordered them to sex each other, they would have done it in the most dispassionate way possible.

To be honest I wasn't informed on alot of things that happen in this issue, while I got raws from time to time, I never once saw dialogue script or a new outline that detailed what was going to happen other then told it would be two more comics. The drastic changes to Shield's persona goes against what I established in Teacher's Pet and in the other cameo's she's appeared in. While this is sword and shield's first story outing as heroines, they should know better about things as taught by their step mother.

While i can't comment on Akon's girls, knowing JJ came from a family of hero's one would expect she know the value of look first before you act. So it seems common sense took backseat to how things are going for this comic.

While true we shouldn't judge it next to Mass Effect 3, it is venturing into the same mistakes that they made. Taking characters out of character, creating plot holes, and generally taking the fun out of the story. This issue headed in a direction it didn't need too nor was it called for. Everyone wanted a complete ending that connected to everything else that came after it. Instead got something with little plot and substance but plenty of sex. While the art is the best thing about the issue, it can't save it from lack of plot and poor use of characters.

Tek~

[begbie_rentonspud]

Man... Last time I do something for people....

Naw... I would do this all over in a heartbeat.

But I am going to tell you all right now, though, that I'm taking all this VERY personally... And here's why. (Let my angry rant begin)

It's hard for me to see not see this as being an attack (on me, anyway.) I have my issues with the comics that have been coming up as of late, like the lack thereof of what happens in this issue. And that's the SEX. Personally, if I was paying for a site that had to deal with people being mind controlled into doing naughty things, that's what I want to see. I don't want to have sit through stories where I have to think about a characters' moral dilemmas and feel bad about. I'm not saying, "ALL STORIES MUST HAVE MINDLESS FUCKING IN IT" nor am I saying that there's no room for it, but I don't want to feel like I have to have a razor to my wrist all the time. And then the sex part is more like a quota that has to be met in order to be a part of this site. You can give your characters soooo much more depth and character development, even in all-sex issues, by giving the hero(es) something to fight for or by seeing how far a villain will go with so much power in their hands, which is what I thought was doing. And I wanted to have fun with that. Because, truthfully? With the exception of a few stories, I have not been having fun here on this site. And what was supposed to be a fun issue that Trish and I did is turning into a major "suck fest" for me. Look, I could take the critiques on my style... Whatever. I'm not that great of an artist but I also don't make myself out to be the greatest, either. And from day one, I was told, "No one is going to care about this story anymore" or (my favorite) "Begbie can't do this". Proved two points wrong. Although, the first point isn't going the way I thought it would... Hopeless optimist in me.

I did something that MC Tek wasn't going to tackle. And all due respect to his feelings on that, I decided to take that ball and run with it. Turn things on their ears a little. (And not for nothing, this is a helluva a lot tamer than some of the stuff Finister has done. ) I have zero problem with respecting characters and their owners, which is why I haven't done nor plan on doing any scenes with Sword and Shield ever having sexual relations (not with each other... Yeesh) because that's what was requested of me, but I do have a problem when they become a "Mary Sue". Like they're untouchable but everyone else is pretty much fodder. Notice that neither Sword nor Shield get MC'd in this story arc? For MCC, at least one of them would be MC'd into being Ring Mistress' thrall. But neither of them have been. That's the "Mary Sue" affect that annoys the beans out of me. If I had characters on this site, I would be INSULTED if they weren't on all fours, being fucked from behind and screaming "Fuck me hard, Master." ESPECIALLY the most powerful ones. And I would LOVE to see just how the many talented writers and artists here on this site would do their take on that. I mean, seriously... I'm not looking for the next "Watchmen" to come from this site. I'm looking for something to have fun with.

So in closing, I wanted to make a fun issue. And apparently, I failed at that because if everyone is just discussing about how this doesn't go anywhere or busy looking for that Shakespearean scene where Ring Mistress holds up a skull, reciting her monologue to her mindless minions, I'm sorry. That's not this issue. And I'm pretty certain that I just opened myself to being flamed on here, but hey, thems the breaks for doing a big and hoping for the best because 'YOU' were the one to help keep alive something you believed in and trying to pay tribute to the original form it was put out in. All I can say now is that ALL your answers are going to be answered and I'll have to do some serious thinking if I'm going to be done with this after the next issue.

~Begs