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thistle
salad faq*
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| How often do you update? |
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| Well, in
a perfect world, I would update three times a week. Hell, in a perfect
world, I would update every damn day and maybe get somewhere
in the damn story. But I have a day job and a few extra curriculars
and I love going to the movies and, you know, sleeping. And I seem to
be going out of town more than I think is reasonable (well, never seems
reasonable to me, but not to my friends and family). And three times
a year I write
ridiculous novels. So, in theory, I post Monday,
Wednesday and Friday- in practice I post Monday, Wednesday and sometimes
Friday, sometimes
Friday night, sometimes not at all. And during the novel writing months
of March, July and November, I post twice a week. Count
Zaar updates
once a month... unless I totally forget about it. Again. |
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| I am a new
reader and - how the hell do you read this thing? |
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| Okay. First,
take a deep breath. Actually, I have been talking to someone recently
about just this. His advice
was to take a storyline
or two (I would recommend reunion, other
people's sins or anna
bloom wakes up, all of which are fairly self-contained - and reunion is
even finished!) and follow those using the "next episode" buttons
(although you'll end up only reading the first page of the episodes
if you don't
use the "next" button, too.). Then go back to the very beginning
and see how the whole thing fits together. Or doesn't, quite, fit together
yet. |
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| I'm not
really sure what to say. I mean, I didn't figure out what I was doing
with the comic until seventy-five comics into the thing. The main
storyline (*cough* most complicated *cough*) is armageddon
girl. The other
storylines fill in backstory, or just wander around aimlessly, or
are completely
unrelated. I switch storylines when
I'm not sure where to go next, or when I'm just tired of drawing a
particular person over and over, or when I have a brilliant idea... |
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| Seriously,
though - what the hell is going on? |
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| It's...
complicated. And I'm not interested in spelling it out explicitly.
I don't want to waste panels on recaps when I have a ton of material
that I haven't even touched yet. There are hints throughout the comic
- and more hints if you look around
in
the extras and
the secret
extras (and feel free to email me (sourmonkeylamb
(at) gmail (dot) com)
with suggestions of who or what you would like an explanation of and
I might
put an answer up on the site somewhere. Possibly. Although I am already
several months behind in answering these sorts of requests. But I have
a folder! I will someday hopefully get to it!) |
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| I'm not
even sure I always know what's going on. Sometimes I think I know
what it's about and sometimes it gets beyond me. |
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| Who
is the main character? |
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| You
have to ask the tough questions, don't you? I'm not sure. Medea's
my favorite, but she's not particularly central to the action. I would
instinctively say that right now it could be C.C.
Ellsworth or Emma
Starkadder... maybe Julian Delmar, too- but my answer could be completely
different next year. |
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| So,
is adding another character your answer to everything? |
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| Um,
yes? I know! It's terrible. But this thing is going to be so big. |
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| Why
does everyone in your comic smoke? |
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| Not
everyone... but, yeah- the answer to your question is here. |
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| Why
is your comic full of amoral creeps? |
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| Okay,
yeah, the thing is... I'm not really sure what the thing is. Maybe
I'm cynical. Maybe I'm a depressive with a broken heart. Maybe
I just think villains are more interesting than heroes. Maybe I just
have a lot of bad dreams. Maybe I just have too much time on my hands.
Maybe I'm just an awful misanthrope myself. Maybe I'm just setting
them up for a fall. Or maybe I just like writing about far-sighted
villains and morally compromised heroes. Maybe all of these things
are true. Maybe not. |
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| Are
all the characters somehow related, if somehow I understood the
intersecting plot threads? |
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| Everything
(and this includes those damn novels I'm always
working on) takes place in or around the same City, but the events
happen to different
people. And yet... (for example) Bobby
Tsarkov's dead brother and
Ellen's missing boyfriend... it's
the same guy. Trace Flood, who is so useful in Anna
Bloom and who
dies during armageddon girl, has
backstory that will be a large part of tin
heart. Eventually. The parents John
Rask doesn't know he
has have both made appearances. |
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So
yes. And no. Some of these things I mean to someday spell out and
tie together, some of them I don't.
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I
don't understand the numbers that sometimes appear on panels.
Explain.
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| Okay.
The numbers are my vague attempt at a chronology.
For example, Anna Bloom is wandering around in '42 but during a
murder of men (which takes place in '44), there are hints that
she's gone. |
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| Basically,
it's just another way to try and organize the material. |
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| What's
with the guy with the claw for a hand? |
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| I am not
going to answer any questions about Count Zaar. Part of the point,
if there is one, is that it is inexplicable. The illustrations for
the craziest novel ever not written. |
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| Why
isn't so-and-so on the cast page? |
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| Yes,
about that... I know- it always needs to be updated. I know there's
a lot of stuff in the extras and the secret
extras that could be updated.
But unless someone kicks me occasionally, I'm not going to do it--
I can't look at this rationally - I'm too busy working on next week's
post to think about what could be updated. So, email me, please; sourmonkeylamb
(at) gmail (dot) com and
let me know what links don't work, who you want to see on the cast page,
what monsters I've forgotten, explanations
you want, whatever. I may not get to it promptly, or at all, but I
will try to give the matter some consideration. |
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| * if
by "frequently" you mean something I was asked once in
passing |
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