As an advertisement, this probably didn’t sell Serta mattresses very well, but the laugh-line at :25 was remarkably well-delivered.

Now it is reported that the combination of high-voltage rock and happy-smiley children’s songs can break the will of the hardest terrorist or rogue element.

“Trust me, it works,” a US operative said.

CADET DAVIS ADDS: There’s no way the Geneva Conventions allow for that.

If you’re new to DMN, I recommend starting with series 2. For example, on page 21 a conniving pirate attempts to convince the Doctor that he can win his family’s respect by proving his medical skills are not worthless to a ninja.

Here are some other suggestions to keep your characters in the story.

1. There is nothing to return to. The Empire killed Luke’s family.  (Careful, this is a bit cliche).
2. Too much is at stake to walk away. In The Day After Tomorrow, the protagonist doesn’t have to trek from Philadelphia to Manhattan, but it’s the only way to save his son.  Alternately, the characters in LOTR have no choice but to fight their genocidal enemies.
3. The character physically cannot walk away. If your character is in prison, he can’t avoid the local thugs.  His only choices are submission and resistance.  Alternately, she may be trapped on a spaceship with a killer alien.

I’ve never been a fan of the Skrulls, Marvel’s standard shape-shifting alien villains.  Sort of like an Atlantean invasion, aliens feel so far removed from the standard Marvel setting that the effect is campy rather than sinister.  It’s also extremely hard to write an interesting alien invasion plot.  Marvel seems to be treating this plotline like it’s novel, but the concept of a secret alien invasion is pretty tired (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the second Wild Cards novel, Animorphs).  “Benevolent” alien invasions aren’t much better (The Day The Earth Stood Still and maybe The Happening).

I found the ads for Secret Invasion above-average, but more because the slogan “Embrace Change” is vaguely threatening and sounds like it came from a US political campaign.

I really like the detail on the hands and I found the visual pretty good, but I think our book-cover makes better use of a human and alien hand.

]]> http://www.superheronation.com/2008/09/05/inquiring-minds-want-to-know-are-environmentalists-the-vanguard-of-an-alien-invasion/feed/ http://www.superheronation.com/2008/09/05/john-august-on-coincidences-in-fiction/ http://www.superheronation.com/2008/09/05/john-august-on-coincidences-in-fiction/#comments Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:27:48 +0000 B. Mac http://www.superheronation.com/?p=1091 John August did a post on writing a plot that isn’t contrived.  He focused on the role of coincidence. I found it highly useful…

Given a choice, try to find cause and effect. One event happens because of something else we’ve seen — ideally, something the hero himself has done.

Instead of having the hero accidentally overhear a key conversation, get him actively trying to listen. Or have an interested third party steer him in that direction — perhaps for his own reasons. At every juncture where a reader could ask “Why did that happen?”, try to have an answer that isn’t, “just because.”

CADET DAVIS ADDS: The most contrived plot I can think of is Heroes season 2.  Please consider the following…

1. In the last two minutes of the first season, Sylar is nearly killed by a crowd of ten heroes but somehow slinks away into a sewer.  No one, including a psychopathic MPD victim or the police officer who was seriously wounded by Sylar, thinks to make sure that he’s dead or otherwise accounted for.
2. The Company captures Sylar and keeps the formerly-superpowered serial killer in a zero-security facility with a single attendant that is tasked with restoring Sylar’s powers. There’s no reason to suspect that Sylar would have made a good employee under any circumstances, but how were they hoping that this would turn out?
3. Sylar kills the attendant and walks out of the facility.  He tries to return to the US to find Suresh, but he drops of famine along the side of the road.  The first person to come across him is Maya, another superpowered person that’s looking for Dr. Suresh’s father.  What a lucky break!  Sure, why not come along?
4. In spite of being wanted for murder and presumably not wanting to attract suspicion, Maya and her brother take Sylar along.  Do not pay attention to the gringo in the back seat!
5. Peter’s failure to consider the possibility that Adam is evil starts out as implausible and gets so unbelievable that it strains the suspension of disbelief.  Peter knows the following facts:  The Company has held the virus for 30+ years without using it.  Shortly after Adam escapes, the virus is unleashed.  If you’re wondering whether Adam’s escape is related to the release of the virus, you’re already 5 episodes smarter than Peter.

• Rush Hour (crazy black cop vs. sober Chinese cop)
• Star Trek (Kirk vs. robotic Spock)
• Superhero Nation (crazy mutant-alligator cop vs. sober IRS agent)

This is pretty easy to handle with two characters, but as you add more it gets increasingly hard to keep the characters consistent.  For example, the most common gags in 8-Bit Theater* is that one of the characters plays the crazy guy and everyone else plays it straight.  In the latest comic the main joke is that Red Mage is a delusional Dungeons and Dragon player. A few issues ago, Red Mage played the straight guy to Fighter.  That inconsistent characterization is fine for a few laughs– and I did find the issues funny– but trading characterization for comedy is usually short-sighted.  It’s easier to come by comedic situations than characters.

One way you can resolve this problem is by keeping each character squarely on one side of the straight/wacky conflict.  For example, in Rush Hour Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan never swap roles.  Chris Tucker is only the clown and Jackie Chan is only the professional.  If you’re only working with a two-man cast, your characters probably never need to swap roles.

But what can you do if you’re working with a large cast?  Although 8-Bit Theatre has some problems, I think it handles the relationship between Black Mage, Fighter and the rest of the cast well.  Black Mage is ALWAYS ludicrously violent and in touch with reality.  Fighter is always stupid and out of touch with reality.  Although the relationship between them changes– sometimes BM plays a wackily violent comic-man and sometimes he plays the voice of reason– their characteristics don’t actually change.  That’s stronger characterization.

*I should add that 8-Bit Theater is generally pretty hilarious and generally far superior to our own straight-vs.-wacky webcomic.

UPDATE: We’re in the second quarter now and the ad has played three five times.

SECOND UPDATE: The ad ended up playing nine times, by my count.

Authors usually write their villains as gratuitously evil to make them badass. That rarely works. Except for Dark Knight’s Joker*, superevil villains are rarely as badass as their more restrained peers (such as Darth Vader, Dr. Octopus, Naomi Novik’s Napoleon and Dr. Doom). Why are superevil villains insufficently badass? A villain that feels more evil than his plot requires is probably cartoonish. In contrast, a badass villain is almost always serious and sober.

*In case you’re interested, I argue below the jump that the DK Joker isn’t unnecessarily evil.

Joker is cartoonishly evil, but in the context of Dark Knight, his evil usually isn’t unnecessary. His objectives and plans cannot be separated from his psychopathy. That said, I’m not sure that he really had to kill the black gang-leader.

What I loved:

• The clothing, particularly the tweed details on Agent Black’s suit and the way that Agent Orange’s sleeve looks so much looser and less uptight than Black’s.  My visual reference for Black had a black suit on, but Banu used a brown suit that fit better with the tan trenchcoat.  Great improvisation!
• Agent Orange’s hand and claws, particularly the patterning on the hand.
• The characters have themes.  The uptight Agent Black has tight clothes and boring, dark colors.  The wackier Agent Orange looks brighter, more surreal and has looser clothes.

What I liked:

• Banu smoothly depicts Agent Orange as larger, particularly in the arms.  It’s noticeable but not overly distracting.
• The drawing is well-balanced horizontally and vertically.

What I didn’t like:

• The orientation of Agent Black’s arm/clipboard.  His elbow juts out to the right, which takes up valuable horizontal space.
• The execution of Agent Orange’s suitcase.  The handle is nice, but the rest is disjointed by the briefcase’s opening slit.  Also, I don’t think that the the suitcase’s placement was ideal– it’s half cut-off by the bottom margin.  I would have preferred the entire suitcase to rest on the bottom margin or perhaps even raise the suitcase above the margin.
• The seal on the suitcase is hard to read.  I’d be thrilled if it were possible for readers to read “OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS” without straining too much.

What I hope this book cover accomplishes:

• It hooks readers with a highly unusual visual: a reptile holding a government briefcase.
• It emphasizes that the book is about a relationship between a somewhat uptight IRS agent and the aforementioned reptile.
• It helps the readers visualize the characters but lets them imagine the characters’ faces for themselves.

What I think this book cover could also accomplish:

• It doesn’t adequately sell the book as a comedy.  (That’s my fault far more than Banu’s, though).
• We need a background, ideally something fresher than a monochrome or a picture of an American city.

(I should probably add that publishers typically provide book covers for novels they publish.  You don’t have to go out on your own to get one done).

JACOB:

I agree.  For example, Han Solo shoots Greedo (first), flips a coin to the bartender and says “sorry about the mess.”  That sequence shows something about his personality and it’s also funny.  In contrast, every LOTR protagonist slaughtered tens of orcs.  Who cares?  What’s that meant to say about them?  It establishes a capability to prevail (the ability to kill many orcs), but without any reason we should care about whether they do.

CADET DAVIS:

I found LOTR more coherent.  The first Star Wars movie was marketed as a romance between Leia and Luke.

Also, Lucas’ dialogue is criminal bordering on felonious.  Han Solo got a few decent lines in (”we’re fine here, thanks” was improvized by Ford) but they were fleeting.

B. MAC:

Star Wars’ characters were archetypical but at least they grew.  Luke became responsible, Han became unselfish, etc.  LOTR felt more like a trek from points A to B to C.  It spent so much time describing each goalpost of the journey that the characters never really emerged.

PAINGOD:

Both movies suffered from notably incompetent bad guys.  At Paingod’s Academy for Supervillainous Excellence, we stress that villains must exterminate any muppet-like creatures upon first contact.  LOTR would have been dramatically improved if Gandalf had decapitated Frodo with a firework.

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D:

Exhibit E: