Monday, March 30, 2009: "Op Order"

[Citi]

[khat]

Still lurking, still reading...

An observation:  things seem to come alive when you're writing about your military experiences.  I think those are thee stories you truly want to tell and it shows. 

The Remedy kind of vanished without much action, and the office politics and the gaming interlude...meh...

I wandered over here looking for a superhero comic, but I just plain like good stories, so if you decide on an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical account of your time overseas, that would be just fine by me. 

Only a thought.  That's the cool thing about being a creator, you get to do whatever you want.

Keep plugging away, ya'll!

/resume lurk

[Rob]

Khat,

thanks for the comments but believe it or not most of what I've written for Remedy and most of what I will write for Remedy is all very autobiographical.

Many of the characters are based on people I've known in real life or are combinations of people I've known. The vigilante stuff is based on growing up, always wanting to be a hero, and then when people started calling me a hero from my time in combat... well it's hard to rectify.

I've been an office manager. Many of the office politics jokes I made are a direct result of things that have happened in my life or have happened to others I know.

Let me put it to you this way, life is a rich tapestry made up of many experiences and my goal is to examine the life of Artur Siedleski. That means his whole life. Not just Remedy the vigilante, not just Artur the office manager or Sgt. Siedleski the soldier; not Artur the boyfriend or Artur the band member... but all of it.

The Spider Man comics have always tried to make Peter Parker seem like a normal guy by including internal and external dramatic conflicts unrelated to Spider Man as a super hero. Will he make the rent, is his girlfriend mad at him, Will Jonah fire him? All of these things add a real life element to the story.

But with Spider Man, inevitably, the story always leads back to his alter ego. No matter how desperate the personal or moral dilemma's are things are usually solved by a battle of some kind or another. Somthething wholly false as it related to real life. Also, in comics, almost all story lines are a path to some sort of conflict, some sort of battle. In real life some things just pass, the ostrich plan does occasionally work because sometimes if you ignore a problem it will go away and sometimes story lines are never resolved.

I wanted to bring a bit more of real life to Remedy. Initially I resisted showing Artur as Remedy at all. I didn't want to confuse people into thinking that this is a "super hero" comic because I didn't think it was.

But I was wrong. It is a hero comic. It's also a military comic, an office politics comic, a relationship comic, a family comic, a music comic, a slice of life comedy comic, a dramatic comic and everything in between.

So I'm glad we showed Artur in action in the first few comics. I'm glad we got right away from it too so that folks didn't get too used to the idea. Don't get too comfortable with the military, this too shall pass. Becausewe all wear many hats in life, I know I have, and Artur's hats will continue to shift.

We will see the Remedy again. Artur's night life is a very big part of who he is and as he's getting older and re-examining his past (like in our current storyline) he has and will continue to raise questions about who he is and what he wants to be.

So yes, Remedy didn't get much play before we moved on to other storylines. I'm seriously considering an animated series (should life ever settle down for me) that will explore Remedy's adventures throughout his younger years before reaching this current, watershed time in his life. Because they are stories worth telling.

But this comic, as it is, is about Artur Siedleski, Office Manager, aging vigilante near the end of his career, musician, boyfriend, pet lover, tourist and man (and a whole bunch of other things I'm not going to spill about just yet). It's about his entire life, not just his nightly exploits.

These are all stories I want to tell. Each and every one because they are all rungs on the ladder leading to my narrative destination. The military stuff may seem more vibrant to you but I assure you that's open to personal interpretation. I could go on forever with all the military stories I have. This story line barely scratches the surface. Just as I could go on and on about the office stuff or the gaming stuff (which was actually a huge hit from a web traffic perspective with my old gaming community).

What I am glad to hear from you is that you found something you like; something about the comic you enjoy. Because my main goal here is to sell you on the characters. Once you relate and enjoy them then perhaps you will continiue to be entertained when Artur switches hats again.

Thanks for the comments. I'm really glad you are enjoying the current storyline.