Sometimes you have ideas, look back at them, and wonder how in the bloody hell you could have written something so stupid. Growing up, I watched the He-Man and She-Ra movie, and had the movie story on Cassette, too, so I remember almost everything about it. I also had many of the action figures as well, including this awesome 3 building playset, and one of the buildings was an awesome snake tower. Interestingly, I never saw a single He-Man or She-Ra episode, only the animated movie.

      One night in college, I watched the He-Man movie, and I was just like, “What the hell. I could write a better movie than this.” So, sleep deprived around 2am I wrote a quick summary, filed it away, and never saw it again…until now. Let’s see just what I wrote. All grammar errors are kept intact from my stream of consciousness. I make comments on my notes in parenthesis and bold.

START NOTES

      “Main villain Hordak (I always preferred Hordak’s design and character to Skeletor). Kidnaps She-Ra when she is a baby, leaving note he could have taken either baby. King’s wife interferes and Hordak kills her. Leaves to other dimension (This is a really dark opening).

For those that don’t know, this is Hordak.

      “Hordak trying to merge both worlds by draining the life essence out of people (What the hell? Where did this come from?). He-Man finds out about the other dimension in the final assault on Skeletor’s castle. He finds documents about it inside (So, screw origin stories, let’s get right to the battle). Skeletor falls into a pit and seemingly dies. Defender of Castle Greyskull says there is a device to enter other dimension in the basement of Castle Greyskull, guarded by a guardian and puzzles (because of course).

      “Perhaps have He-Man learn of other dimensions through his animal because they are connected –Battlecat/Horse – and they create portals (No…Just no).

      “Once in the other dimension, finds She-Ra leading her own army against Hordak. She was apparently raised by Hordak and revolted against him (Hey, in the movie, He-Man had to convince her Hordak was evil, but apparently in my draft she was smart enough to find out on her own). She had found a sword that turned her into this and she escaped.

For those who don’t know, this is She-Ra

      “Final Battle: He-Man battles Hordak while he sends She-Ra to stop the merger of worlds which will kill millions (was I watching Sliders or something around this time?). He-Man wins, barely. Then red Skeletor appears. Has a rotating room with spikes they fight on (what, am I putting Mortal Kombat in here now?). Skeletor more powerful (I think I made his bones red to indicate this), and he explains why; he has mastered reincarnation spells (sure, why not, this is just a hodgepodge of ideas at this point, why not toss Ninja Scroll into it, too). Skeletor announces he lured He-Man played everyone (go grammer). Outside, it looks like Hordak’s forces defeated, but Skeletor army was waiting for He-Man and Hordak’s army to thin out. He-Man cannot win because Skeletor cannot die. Skeletor kills He-Man (so this isn’t a kid’s movie?).

      “Defender of Greyskull, the girl with wings (I guess I couldn’t remember her name) says she can merge He-Man’s power with hers. She-Ra gains twice the power and defeats Skeletor (so, I guess my preference for hero was She-Ra, even though I called my movie He-Man).

      “Skeletor will reincarnate somewhere else and no one will be able to stop him because He-Man and She-Ra will be too old. She-Ra must decide to let Skeletor possibly win in the future, or kill herself (Shawn, this is supposed to be for kids!) and have her and He-Man be resurrected later to stop him. She must act before He-Man’s powers cannot be returned. Defender of Greyskull casts the spell and She-Ra stabs and kills herself (Jesus Christ!).

      “Show twins being born. Show a man born elsewhere with a skull birthmark, but man raises him anyway (how nice of him).”

END NOTES

You can tell I didn’t bother to ever edit my ideas ever, and just put it down and forgot about it forever. Reincarnating in a different body as a baby is not the same as falling off a cliff and not dying, by the way. Also, how is Skeletor not able to die, but somehow She-Ra kills him. And what the hell is wrong with me by having their mother murdered, He-Man killed by his main villain, and having She-Ra kill herself? Anyway, this is probably why I shouldn’t be writing fan fiction, and maybe this is one time I shouldn’t be writing for Hollywood.

FINAL WORDS: So, I had the Battle Damaged He-Man and Skeletor as a kid, and they had 3 chest options: regular, one sword slash, or two sword slashes. You could flip through them to imitate them cutting each other. Maybe subconsciously I brought that aspect of them cutting people with swords into my movie.

Also, apparently blood doesn’t exist in your body until you turn 18.

An ancient evil has erupted and is consuming an unknown (to you) fantasy world. You are sucked in and chosen as a hero, but first, you must recruit a party of adventures to help you defeat the great evil (that has finally returned). Chose 4 adventurers from any ANIME (series or movie or OVA) to join you (you are the 5th).

Rules:

1) You can only chose Fantasy anime characters (so no Gundams or Cowboy Bebop characters, but, hey, One Piece is considered a Fantasy, and you can even cheat and use Final Fantasy VI and Darkstalkers since they were made into anime).
2) You can only chose main characters, or supporting characters. No villains (unless they later become main and/or nerfed supporting characters [see below])
3) Only 1 character per series.
3) You must have a 3/2 or 2/3 ration of males and females (counting yourself)

Rubette (from Rokudo) – Swordfighter/Archer

Rubette is a powerful sword fighter; she defeats nearly all the villains in the first 3 episodes while the main character, Gokudo, only defeats about one or two. She is eventually given a magic bow with unlimited energy arrows, so she can do combines close-combat fighting with long-range attacks. In addition, she is loyal to her companions, even when they lie, cheat, steal, or hit on her; she accepts everyone for who they are, even taking care of her friend when he turns into an old man. On the negative, she loves fighting, and will jump into any fight instantly and might make encounters longer and harder than they need to be. As a bonus, if it’s the Rubette from the end of the series, she will also have additional powers from the God she has trapped in her body. It is extremely dangerous to underestimate her and she will help take out most enemies quickly.

Lina Inverse (from Slayers): Magic-User

Lina Inverse is one of the most powerful magic users. Though she is hard to get along with (don’t make her mad) she at least tries to do the right thing, even it usually involves blasting whole towns in the process. Her anger and insanity can be used to get under the villain’s skin to subtlety allow them to make mistakes. When facing many legions of undead or orcs, and very large enemies like Dragons or Gods, her powerful spells would be an absolute necessity.

Anubis (from Ronin Warriors: Season 2) – Spiritualist, Leader, Summoner

He was once a villainous leader, and would bring some different ideas and plans to the group with his previous leadership experience. In addition, he also has many devastating attacks with his armor, but now has additional magic from following the Ancient One by use of a magic staff. He has a strict code of honor which could help bring the other members of the group in line (though it also has the potential to just lead to arguments with Rubette and Lina). He would also be the most likely of the group to be able to solve the main darkness’ weakness, as well as how he came to be, why he’s back now, etc; all essential information for defeating the main bad guy in the end.

Etoh (from Record of Lodoss War) – Healer

No matter how powerful you are, you will always be hurt, and you need to be able to be healed quickly. I couldn’t think of any healers except Etoh and don’t normally see too many in fantasy anime (and the other healer in the Lodoss TV series–but she would always be kidnapped due to people wanting to use her blood to resurrect a god so…). Etoh gets his healing powers from the god Falis, and can use it to heal you very quickly when the party needs it. Plus, he can defend himself, so you won’t always have to protect and/or worry if anything is happening to him during battle.

That’s it. Hopefully this party could save the world without killing each other in the process.

What would your party look like?

I present to you a preview of Page 6 of Mechanaflux, my new Fantasy All-Ages Comic Book. Here, I will start with the original movie script, going from its jounrey to comic book adaptation script, to thumbnails, to pencils, to colored, and then to it’s final verison. Over the course of the next few weeks will show you the different steps and versions that it took to make this page to completion. First up, here is the rough draft of the script (I can’t seem to find my final draft for some reason):

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First up, is the original Mechanflux script. I wrote this as a 100 page feature length movie for my Screenwriting Class at Southampton College.

MOVIE SCRIPT

EXT: TOLT – FRONT OF WOLT’S HOUSE

The town is on fire in all directions. The sounds of hundreds of MECHEERS stampede through the town.

EXT: TOLT – DARIUS’ HOUSE

Darius runs toward his house, carrying the two children. He turns his head toward voices.

MECHEERS                   FIND AMULET. DESTROY.

INT: TOLT – DARIUS’ HOUSE

Darius closes the door. He runs to his basement steps, but then he hears steam signaling the rise of the arm cannon. A blast destroys his door and wall. The door crumbles to the ground.

ANGLE ON: Darius through the MECHEERS arm cannon.

Darius’ blue eyes turn darker blue as green fire forms near his eyes, growing larger as it moves forward. Darius raises his head toward the ceiling. Another green fire ball shoots from his eyes, grows larger as it moves forward, and destroys the upper walls. He jumps into his basement, holding the children, then another blast fires up from the basement and destroys the other upper walls. The Mecheer pushes itself up, but as soon as it straightens its body out, the ceiling falls and crushes the Mecheer. The building burns.

FADE OUT

ROLL OPENING CREDITS

END MOVIE SCRIPT

Now, this is the initial draft. I was excited writing this story, but it was obviously only ever going to either be a $150 million dollar+ movie or an animated movie. However, I realized I could feasibly make it a comic book. A few years later, I would be determined to make my screenplay into comic book form. Of course, that meant rewriting the entire script to fit the format of a comic book. Here is the first draft of that.

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COMIC BOOK SCRIPT

Page 5

Panel 4 – Pull out to show the entire town (similar to Page 1, Panel 1) only now the entire city is on fire. Fire is ravaging many buildings. Smoke stretches outward.

Panel 5 – Darius is now inside her house, where she lives alone. She is holding the children _____ and ____. Her house is decorated with many spellbooks on the floor, as she is a messy individual, and her walls are adorned with tapestries of landscapes.

DARIUS                           We’re here children. Soon we will escape this place.

Panel 6 – Darius’ front door caves in from a Mecheer’s fist.

Panel 7 – Angle On: Darius through the MECHEERS arm cannon.

MECHEER                         Attention all Mecheers. Amulet Identified.

Page 6 – Darius’ house (interior and exterior), Tolt in flames.

Panel 1 – Focus On: Darius’ blue eyes turn red.

Panel 2 – Flames appear near Darius and begin to grow.

Panel 3 – Flames erupt outward, burning the Mecheer and pushing it backwards out the door. This can be seen from the outside, with the Mecheer being flung outside with a few other Mecheers in the vicinity.

Panel 4 – Darius (holding the children) runs down into her basement stairs.

Panel 5 – Outside, the fallen Mecheer (still on the ground) readies its arm cannon, along with other Mecheers.

END COMIC SCRIPT

You can see the only major change is that instead of the Mecheer getting up and having the house fall on it, now Darius simply cuts it down. Originally, I had the Mecheer rising to show how resilient and dangerous they are, but realized that it took up too much time and was cut early on in the comic script phase. In addition, I already have 3 panels of the Mecheers destroying the town and that was probably enough to convey their threat (this appears on the 3 panels right before this page). Also, Darius previously heard the Mecheer before it approached and crushed the house in, to indicate the immediate threat, but that really would only work better on film than on a comic page.

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THUMBNAILS

Before the comic book began, my artist made my entire script into thumbnails of the entire issue, and what you see marked on it is me making many notes, in addition to me placing many arrows here and there, moving panels around, and removing others. Page 6 & 7 of the thumbnails are present, but as you will see later, the entire page was condensed a lot more. Also, I finally got the colors of magic down and exact way this world’s spells (or energy) are used, so you will later see that Darius no longer uses red energy and/or flames; everyone only uses Energy itself as a weapon. Also, notice that Darius is no longer in her home, as running to her home from the Mecheers give it a better sense of urgency. Should also mention that I changed Darius from a man to a woman, but my artist stated she wanted to keep the name Darius for her.

On Page 6, there is another panel above that I removed, and the same with Page 7, where I removed the bottom panels (so as to avoid too many spoilers and so you only see the process for this page)

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PENCILS

Above are the pencils of the page. If you can’t tell, my artist goes all digital.

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FINAL COLORED PAGE

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There it is; the final pages, from writer and artist (over the course of multiple conversations). For some reason, it looks a little brighter than on my computer and in the physical comic book than it does here, because somehow the first half of the issue saved as CMYK format. Something that will have to be altered when I publish this as a webcomic (if I can figure out how).

Doug Cook explains Funmaker Games, and how to play his game Mimic.

http://www.funmakergames.com

BlipTV / YouTube / MySpace / Facebook / Vimeo

Interview with Chad Ellis, creator of Battlegrounds, a combination Card & Miniatures game.

http://www.yourmovegames.com

BlipTV / YouTube / MySpace / Facebook / Vimeo

Chapter 5: Questions

      Otovan, is a comet really going to destroy our world? It just sounds so ludicrous.

      As I have said before, we must find that out while you write.

      Comets are rare. Since the telescope, we have only found about four or five, but this one is actually coming toward us. Could it be guided by some sort of magical object, as all magic was not vanquished, correct?

      Therein you are correct. Objects that were blessed with magic still hold it within them.

      And you know that was not the question I asked. What is it you see Otovan? Is this happening now? Has it already happened? Or perhaps, has it not yet happened.

      I have no control over my powers. What I chose to see is not up to me, most of the time.

      Most of the time?

      When I have a question about what I see, sometimes what I see later attempts to answer that, as you just saw. When King Clandestine told them the story of the comet, I was able to see what the King was telling them by asking myself what happened before. Yet, my seeing only occurs because it needs you to write. You have no parents Lycious, and I know why.

      Please don’t tell me I am a demon of some sort.

      No. You were created, differently, but you are still human. There is always one person on this planet who is to be contacted to write when a disaster is seen, seen by someone like me. Like you, I am only the latest in a line that strings back thousands of years. My ancestors paired with your ancestors. Even though you were created.

      Created? What do you even mean? Have you ever seen my parents in your visions?

      You were created from these past chroniclers of history, that is all the books tell me. The chronicler will always be an orphan, with the knowledge of words passed down through the centuries.

      That might explain why I’m such a genius. Wait. How many times has a disaster occured? If what you say is true, why are there only 3 such recordings in history? Where are the countless others that should exist?

      I hold copies of every one, while one is always spread throughout history, but no one ever appears to take good care of them. I own 12 books, thus, that is how many times your world has come close to death.

      And no one knows of this?

      I cannot be certain, but it seems most of the world is blissfully ignorant of the first 10. Ironic for a world that prides itself of history. From what I have read, they date back very much further in time; most disasters are 500 to 1,000 years apart. The fact that it is only 50 years after the previous disaster causes me to pause.

      The war that Atius is preparing for is similar to my town, though they at least have an army and allies, while my people refuse to accept anything, walking every day like mindless zombies. It disgusts me. Why can’t I help Sye and Sara, too? Even if this is the past or the present, there must be something I can do.

      I know you want to help, but that is not possible. They are a continent away. And it is still unknown to me what time this occurs in. My visions jump from different times quite frequently, so it is hard for me to keep any coherent timeline straight. Are they the past, am I witnessing the now, or it has this yet to be, a possible future which might be averted? It would drive most people mad. You will be able to help me differentiate the time I see. You cannot help Lycious, until we know everything we can. This world needs a chronicle; history must be recorded.

Return To “Chapter 4: Chosen”                         Continue To “Chapter 6: Doubt”

The first episode is an interview was with who I thought was an attendee at the convention and I wanted to get her take on the convention and how she got into games, only to find out she worked for Fantasy Flight Games. And thus, this interview.

I don’t know what’s up with BlipTV.  It seems the WMV NEVER PLAYS!  So I usually chose the Flash option.  Now, they seem to have removed the Flash option and replaced it with MPEG4, but the audio is horrible.  Listen to the opening theme of Inside The Box for Living Labyrinth, then listen to the WMV for the 10 seconds it takes before it freezes.  I hate that I can never stay up-to-date to actually make my videos have a consistently high quality.  Anyway, on to the videos.

Fantasy Flight

BlipTV / YouTube / MySpace / Facebook / Vimeo

Living Larbyrinth

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