Progress Report

Last Updated on Friday, 21 March 2008 12:27 Written by Brian! Thursday, 20 March 2008 09:41

Not a lot going on, really. Team Robo pushes forward into Volume 2, Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War. Scott’s pumping out the best pages I’ve ever seen him do — the way he does on every goddamn issue — while I wrapped up the script for Issue 2.2 last weekend and started 2.3 shortly thereafter.

The first two issues are all about storming Sicily and killing the hell out of some top secret Nazi weapons. These are easily our most action packed comics yet. Especially Issue 2.2, as it’s pretty much an action scene leading to another action scene leading to another action scene. Oh, don’t worry, we squeeze in ample character moments and one liners for you folks out there obsessed with content. Still, I predict we’ll see a fair amount of complaints about how these two issues read way too fast. Sorry, hypothetical reviewer, you can find your decompressed comics filled with turgid dialog elsewhere. We’re too busy making a robot punch other robots to bother with that junk.

IGN actually had an interesting point in their latest review. The short version: “While every issue has been outstanding in its own way, they’ve also felt very similar to each other, which could present problems if Clevinger and Wegener don’t mix things up a bit with the upcoming ongoing.”

I think this is an example of looking for something to complain about for the sake of a review, but still, it’s an interesting observation. Are we overly formulaic?

One of our goals is that Atomic Robo should be the most pick-up-able book on the racks. Every issue is meant to be a jumping on point. We accomplish this partially by not being tied to a convoluted continuity that makes no sense even if you already know it, and partially by making every issue serve as a microcosm of the series as a whole. This is my Dragnet Theory of Writing, a concept so important I capitalized it and will blather about in greater detail another day.

I do think the concern that issues could be too similar to one another would be a bigger problem if we were doing an ongoing. But Atomic Robo was never going to come out twelve months a year. The game plan from day one has been to release mini-series after mini-series with short gaps between them. Each mini-series will revolve around a particular era, or theme, or foe while adding to the overall mythos. This, and our ability to hop around the twentieth century while doing it, ought to keep things sufficiently stirred up without compromising our goals vis a vis accessibility.

Volume 2, for example, is six stand-alone issues that make up three loosely connected story arcs that can each be summed up as “Robo takes out a top secret Nazi superweapon.” I mean, it’s basically Issue 1.1 times six, right? But we go from a WW2 beach invasion to a midnight train heist to a laboratory of horrors to a covert mission to save London gone wrong in those six issues. Three very different adventures all spun out of the same basic premise. So, are we too formulaic? I dunno, certainly doesn’t seem any worse than “Batman fights crime.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 9:41 pm and is filed under comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • http://top4lists.blogspot.com/ Mecha-Shiva

    My personal preference in general is closer to a Veronica Mars, to continue with the TV analogy, where every episode had a self contained story, but serialized elements are mixed in to make catching every episode/issue that much more rewarding.

    As a sort of loyal and dedicated reader, the jumping on points don’t matter much to me. But I appreciate that you’ve thought these things out from a reader’s point of view. And even though you haven’t perfectly targeted my reading habits with your Dragnet plan, that’s trumped by the fact that Atomic Robo is just fun to read, so thanks for that. Looking forward to both the TPB and FCBD to whore out your book, cause I’m a dork like that.

  • http://top4lists.blogspot.com Mecha-Shiva

    My personal preference in general is closer to a Veronica Mars, to continue with the TV analogy, where every episode had a self contained story, but serialized elements are mixed in to make catching every episode/issue that much more rewarding.

    As a sort of loyal and dedicated reader, the jumping on points don’t matter much to me. But I appreciate that you’ve thought these things out from a reader’s point of view. And even though you haven’t perfectly targeted my reading habits with your Dragnet plan, that’s trumped by the fact that Atomic Robo is just fun to read, so thanks for that. Looking forward to both the TPB and FCBD to whore out your book, cause I’m a dork like that.

  • Josh

    I can’t really see how they can base an accusation like that on a series that has been described several times, by several different people, as a “grab-bag” mini-series. Because Diamond suck and I live in England, I haven’t recieved my copy of #6 yet, but I can be pretty damn sure that Robo doesn’t go to Mars, nor does her fight clockwork mummies, nor does he smash insects with buicks.

  • Josh

    I can’t really see how they can base an accusation like that on a series that has been described several times, by several different people, as a “grab-bag” mini-series. Because Diamond suck and I live in England, I haven’t recieved my copy of #6 yet, but I can be pretty damn sure that Robo doesn’t go to Mars, nor does her fight clockwork mummies, nor does he smash insects with buicks.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    @Mecha-Shiva: I suspect Volume 2 might come closer to that kind of structure without quite getting to it. When it’s done, you’ll have to let me know what you think. People say that film and comics media inform one another because they’re both so dependent on image and text. But on a more practical level, I think television and comics work the same way because television producers have poured billions of dollars into figuring out how to do episodic content.

    @Josh: I guess the complaint is that they feel so similar even while being very different. But, uh, shouldn’t they? Seems to me a fun adventure comic should feel like a fun adventure.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian

    @Mecha-Shiva: I suspect Volume 2 might come closer to that kind of structure without quite getting to it. When it’s done, you’ll have to let me know what you think. People say that film and comics media inform one another because they’re both so dependent on image and text. But on a more practical level, I think television and comics work the same way because television producers have poured billions of dollars into figuring out how to do episodic content.

    @Josh: I guess the complaint is that they feel so similar even while being very different. But, uh, shouldn’t they? Seems to me a fun adventure comic should feel like a fun adventure.

  • http://teknoarcanist.deviantart.com/ Brandon Carbaugh

    Well it’s not so much the content as the actual formula and how it’s shown. The formula so far has been ‘announce time/setting, cue historical figure, mission statement, witty banter, goes to X location, shit goes down’. I LIKE the dragnet formula (even like calling it that), but I can see why IGN would point that out,
    But then settling AROUND a formula doesn’t HAVE to mean conforming to it. Some of the best fun comes when you shake up what the readers have come to expect from you. Maybe a later series could settle on the year and half when someone usurped Tesladyne (or something less cliche) and Robo became homeless and bummed around 50′s America. Or how the whole ‘time/place given, character met, mission statement’ can be twisted around if time travel comes into the mix.
    I don’t really think the formula is of concern so much, as long as the content itself is good. Keep delivering in that department, and IGN can bitch all they like. To quote Roger Ebert: with as many things as this does so well, it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel at the same time.

  • http://teknoarcanist.deviantart.com Brandon Carbaugh

    Well it’s not so much the content as the actual formula and how it’s shown. The formula so far has been ‘announce time/setting, cue historical figure, mission statement, witty banter, goes to X location, shit goes down’. I LIKE the dragnet formula (even like calling it that), but I can see why IGN would point that out,
    But then settling AROUND a formula doesn’t HAVE to mean conforming to it. Some of the best fun comes when you shake up what the readers have come to expect from you. Maybe a later series could settle on the year and half when someone usurped Tesladyne (or something less cliche) and Robo became homeless and bummed around 50′s America. Or how the whole ‘time/place given, character met, mission statement’ can be twisted around if time travel comes into the mix.
    I don’t really think the formula is of concern so much, as long as the content itself is good. Keep delivering in that department, and IGN can bitch all they like. To quote Roger Ebert: with as many things as this does so well, it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel at the same time.

  • http://teknoarcanist.deviantart.com/ Brandon Carbaugh

    Side note: With all of this going on, has Atomic Age been pushed to the cold darkness of the back-burner?

  • http://teknoarcanist.deviantart.com Brandon Carbaugh

    Side note: With all of this going on, has Atomic Age been pushed to the cold darkness of the back-burner?

  • Josh

    Atomic Robo hasn’t been going long enough to become formulaic. Six issues isn’t enough to pidgeon-hole a new book.

  • Josh

    Atomic Robo hasn’t been going long enough to become formulaic. Six issues isn’t enough to pidgeon-hole a new book.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    @Brandon: Actually, I’ve seriously been trying to figure out a good time period for Robo to do a Hard Traveling Heroes homage. Currently, I’m thinking it’ll be at some point before Robo turns Tesla Heavy Industries into the Tesladyne we know and love. Still not 100% behind the idea, but it’s funny that you mentioned something so close to that proto-story.

    And, yes, Atomik Age is indefinitely postponed. The more I look at the Nuklearverse, the more I like where I left it.

    @Josh: No way, with our lack of decompression we can totally be pigeon holed in a single issue! :)

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian

    @Brandon: Actually, I’ve seriously been trying to figure out a good time period for Robo to do a Hard Traveling Heroes homage. Currently, I’m thinking it’ll be at some point before Robo turns Tesla Heavy Industries into the Tesladyne we know and love. Still not 100% behind the idea, but it’s funny that you mentioned something so close to that proto-story.

    And, yes, Atomik Age is indefinitely postponed. The more I look at the Nuklearverse, the more I like where I left it.

    @Josh: No way, with our lack of decompression we can totally be pigeon holed in a single issue! :)

  • Scott!

    LOL you can’t go week without an Atomic Age query, can you? We should just start putting big giant disclaimers on the back of all Atomic Robo TPBs -”SORRY. NO ATOMIC AGE THIS YEAR. OR NEXT>”

    As far as IGN goes -lets consider the source, shall we. There’s nothing wrong with IGN per-say, but they are very mainstream and corporate. Robo’s more of a fringe book. And all our past reviews from IGN have been grudgingly favorable -as if they don’t want to admit we might not suck because we’re a little Indie book from two guy’s you’ve never heard of before.

  • http://www.scottwegener.com Scott

    LOL you can’t go week without an Atomic Age query, can you? We should just start putting big giant disclaimers on the back of all Atomic Robo TPBs -”SORRY. NO ATOMIC AGE THIS YEAR. OR NEXT>”

    As far as IGN goes -lets consider the source, shall we. There’s nothing wrong with IGN per-say, but they are very mainstream and corporate. Robo’s more of a fringe book. And all our past reviews from IGN have been grudgingly favorable -as if they don’t want to admit we might not suck because we’re a little Indie book from two guy’s you’ve never heard of before.

  • Josh

    http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=16

    The contents of that link pretty much sum up how I feel about IGN in any case.

  • Josh

    http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=16

    The contents of that link pretty much sum up how I feel about IGN in any case.

  • http://scottwegener.com/2008/03/24/getcher-war-on/ Scott Wegener » Blog Archive » Getcher War On

    [...] a progress report over at Atomic-Robo. Apparently there is at least one reviewer who is concerned that Robo is a one-trick pony, so Brian [...]

  • http://cnadianmonkeysqurrl.deviantart.com/ Ian

    @Brandon: Something like “Atomic Hobo”?

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