Exiern

Meet the New Writer

by chemiclord on October 13, 2011 at 10:11 am

I think it’s time that I finally step forward into the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

Greetings, Exiern readers; my name is Thomas Knapp, and I’ll be the poor sap trying to fill Drowemos’s very big shoes moving forward into the next stage of the comic’s story.

I’m not going to pretend that anyone knows me, so do allow me to give you a brief rundown of what I’ve done, and what I plan to do.

I’m fairly new on the writing scene, so I don’t exactly have a burgeoning resume. I have my own website with a list of my own creative writing (http://chemiclord.wordpress.com; don’t worry, this will most likely be the only time I mention it here), and most recently have been working with Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo fame in producing a series of light novels for his Endgames storyline. A short story previewing that work, “Behind the Masque” can be found on Amazon’s Kindle Store (link here).

Within those samplings (much of the work on my site is available for free), I think readers here can get a reasonable idea as to my style of humor (what there is of it) and storytelling technique.

I started following this webcomic roughly four years ago (back when Studio Boom was doing the art for the webcomic), and I’ve seen several changes in that span. I know change can be scary… I know I myself was wary when the artist was changed, and I’ll readily acknowledge that this change could be even bigger to the story itself. Bear with me, and I hope that I can keep your interest in what will invariably a slightly different direction for the narrative, no matter how much I will try to keep to what has made this story compelling.

So… why Exiern?

The short answer; I think there’s a lot of potential in this story, and I think I can be someone who brings more of it out.

The long answer; I am intrigued by the base premise of the comic. Gender roles and gender identity as they pertain to the physical sexual traits is a concept that society in general is still struggling with today. The perception as opposed to the reality (or if there even is a reality past our perception) is a theme that I think could use a bit more exploration.

Another aspect is the world itself. As of this moment, we’ve seen a very small slice of what is a fairly large setting. I dig world building… it’s the canvas that I love to apply literary paint to. One thing I promise you will see in my tenure as writer is much more of this world, some different cultures and how they do what they do and why they do it.

There are going to be some new elements to the lore. I want to keep what has been revealed largely intact, and that’s going to be my greatest challenge, but there will be some additional pieces that I think will help connect the fragments into a more complete picture. Everything isn’t nearly so simple as it has been presented so far, and that complexity is something I’m going to try to convey.

Yeah, that’s great and all… but what about our T&A?

I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that my “excellent writing” (don’t worry, I’m rolling my eyes just as much as all of you probably are) is all by itself going to attract new readers and that there will be no need for cheesecake. I am quite aware as to what really brings the money to this site.

In seriousness though, mature scenes and sexual situations happen. I’m not a prude that thinks they inherently detract from a story. I won’t promise there will be as much nudity and pin-up material in the comic itself (because there won’t), but it’s going to happen at points where the story calls for it.

Anything else before we click the back button and never come back?

I tend to be a rather quiet person. This quite possibly could be the only post I make in this rant space for as long as I am here. I don’t pretend anyone wants to hear my rambling, and I’m not going to subject anyone to it.

I also welcome criticism; as I possess absolutely no delusions of adequacy, much less greatness. I can’t promise that I’ll always agree with what you are trying to say, but I’m always willing to hear it. I’ve always felt the best ways to learn how to do better is to take what people say, the good and the bad. You can email me at chemiclord@exiern.com to bring up your concerns or feedback. I can’t promise the most prompt of replies… but I will do what I can.

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New Ongoing Comic in the ESCarchive: HELD WITHIN

by DanStanding on October 12, 2011 at 6:38 am

Posted In: Announcements

Last month the ESCarchive had an exclusive soft-launch of Strips #1 and #2 of a new four-panel comic, HELD WITHIN. Today Strip #3 is now available!

HELD WITHIN is drawn by the amazing W. Wondollar, and the story is based on a book I wrote about a college girl who…well, let’s just say that once things get moving along there will be lots of magical vengeance! HELD WITHIN updates the second and last Wednesday of every month.

HELD WITHIN is part of my overall plan to create ongoing and regularly updating original content in the ESCarchive. Before anyone asks, yes, DARK REFLECTIONS is part of that plan and although we are one step closer to getting that underway I still don’t have an ETA on it yet.

My hope is that more exclusive original series which feature their own mature content, like DARK REFLECTIONS (once it is set up), HELD WITHIN, and the upcoming PROJECT: iSIS (shhh…it’s a secret), will begin to make the ESCarchive more independent from its previous heavy reliance on EXIERN nudity. It’s a great support system that has really done the comic well for a long time, but I don’t want it to become a crutch. It’s my goal that when T&A appears in EXIERN it’s because it was right for the story, not because we had to pay the bills.

Is this plan a little naive of me? Perhaps, but I have the opportunity to try it and we’ll see what happens.

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Exiern Author Update

by DanStanding on October 3, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Posted In: Announcements

As some of you may already be aware of – because of the many emails I have been writing over the last 24 hours – there has been movement regarding who the next Exiern author will be.

Specifically, we’ve chosen one. As of right now everyone who applied has been sent an email thanking them for their submission, with a little note from me. Every submission had great material in it, clearly submitted by people who are passionate about this comic. Rejecting any of you was not easy, and writing those emails did not make my day go any better. Every one of you submitted something worthy of my time and I hope I was able to highlight that in my emails to you.

If, for any reason, one of my emails failed to reach its destination I’m sorry this was how the message was broken to you. Please let me know if you did not get a response from me.

I’m sure many of you are wondering who we’ve chosen, but that is an announcement I want to save for another day, once Drowemos has had the chance to begin working on the transition with the selected (and accepted) applicant.

More-so, at this time I want to acknowledge everyone who submitted. Thank you for your energy, interest, and passion for EXIERN. It is this comic’s amazing audience, whether you submitted material or have been willing to weather changes in the creative team, that keeps it going. I fully believe we will continue to write a series worthy of your readership…and I hope you will think so as well.

And don’t worry, more updates will come.

15 Comments

Arguing With Ben

by Drowemos on September 27, 2011 at 9:28 pm

Posted In: Announcements

I have this buddy Ben who is one on the more prolific webcomicer out there;

He also happens to be an interesting guy to argue with. Ben is very passionate about what he believes and will have knock down drag out fights about it. But he never does it in malice. He is the type of guy who you can say “Ben you ignorant slut” to and take it in good humor. Just keep in mind he will call you an ignorant slut back so you have to have the same sort of take no prisoners but hold no grudges attitude that if you plan on entering the debate arena with him.

Why am I telling you this? Well last night I had a little debate with him over the DC comics relaunch, the potrayal of Starfire and the Dave Willis cartoon on the subject. It was a fun debate and something you should check out.

http://animationaficionados.com/2011/09/26/david-willis-is-an-idiot/

Now the title of the episode is “Dave Willis is an idiot” and yet again this is because of the way Ben debates. Later Ben posted a retraction apologizing for the strength of his disagreement which is something you got to respect. A noble man is not someone who always does the right thing but someone who admits when he is wrong. And you guys know I have been in the been there done that catagory of loosing my seam and then having to retract it later so I can respect Ben for this.

http://animationaficionados.com/2011/09/27/an-apology-regarding-david-willis/

This whole controversy is over the almost comically stupid execution of the DC comics reboot. The stated purpose of the reboot was to gain new readers by streamlining continuity to make the stories more accessible. The strange part of all this is right after stating that DC comics seems to have gone out of it way to offend this new audience they were trying to get.

Lets face it once the internet came along most of us stopped buying comic books for their pornography value. A 12 year old now can go online and see any character having sex with any other character in graphic detail. He doesn’t have to pay 3-4 buck for a comic book to get a glimpse of a silhouetted boob. Same goes for 42 year old men with a mentality of 12 year olds. And yet all this is the new lot of comics from DC has to offer is censored soft core pornography.

Seriously the stories are dreadful and cleched. The characterization is about as deep as a single molecular layer of graphine. And the books are about as innovative and groundbreaking as discovering fire is hot. The core comic book audience will put up with this because frankly they are either buying out of nostalgia for their childhood or because they are dreamers who make up their own stories in their head based off the archetypes in the books. The general public on the other hand in no where near as loyal as the core comic audience and will not put up with this crap. Changing continuity will not make up for the fact that most of the books are just plain bad.

And then there is women. My God, DC seems to understand less about women that immortal genderless aliens from a barren wasteland planet in a galaxy with out any form of life reproduces in a dimension where “No girls allows ’cause they have cooties” is written into the fundemental laws of the universe that defines the very existance of time and space. At every turn they seem to go out of their way to let women know they are not welcome and will not be listened to. Starfire is just the most recent insult in a long line of slights to those dreaded carrier of the cootie infestation. Here is a general hint for those of you are genderless aliens, women do not buy things from people who treat them like garbage. Yeah I know it’s weird it’s almost like women are rational human beings who will make informed decisions on where they choose to spend there money.

Ultimately David Willis is wrong. It’s not the slutty Starfire that is going to kill DC it’s all the other things:

The stories are too decompressed and juvenile.
There is no diversity of product. It’s retelling of stories and using icon/imagery from the 50′s
The price is way too high for a single comic .
There is no investment in new products or searching for new talent.
The direct market is a sinking ship that DC is clinging to with all it’s might.
There is no women writing comics or in decision making positions.
DC thinks the general public are like comic books fans and will still buy their product after being publicly insulted.

A slutty Starfire is the least of DC’s problems, its the systemic and culturally idocys of the company that are the gushing chest wounds bleeding the company to death.

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