War of the Forums

[Crazy Elf Boy]

CEB: See? SEE! Not everyone figured out who the mercenary was!

As for the master of suspense question... I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment about my development or as a jab about my previous work... >_>;;

No I meant that as a compliment because you write one comic about the mercenary say and then leave it at a really tense moment, then the next comic is about Gavin and Martin like 27. So we have to wait (hence suspense) for the next issue to see what happens with the mercanery and vice versa.

I like this comic too because it does levae you in a great state of suspense about what did Brian find? and why hasn't he been sleeping?. Though being the master of suspense that you are you will probably do a comic about Becca or Blademaster, to keep us living on the edge of our seats.

[Weasel Overlord]

Nice!

Also: Gavinishot *runs*

[Lady Vulpix]

A word to the wise: write your programs correctly the first time!

Wise words indeed. Compile it as often as possible, run tests for every functionality as soon as it's done in order to avoid debugging a giant code monster when the whole thing is supposedly finished, use declarative names for your functions and variables, and comment your code so that another person (or even you next year) can understand what it does.

And ooooh, cliffhanger! I wonder what it is that you've found.

[Gavin Luper]

Bahahaha! Excellent work Brian. The plot progresses, AND we get to see more evidence of you having an unusually heightened sense of my musical tastes. Haha, the phone ringtones are very cool, and show that you're researching your characters well. (Why, why did I say I was listening to Good Boys ... of all the other songs I could have chosen ... bleh, I like it. )

Oh, and if it turns out your character has beaten me to finding info on this girl ... *cracks knuckles*

Keep up the awesome work, mate.

Um, and yeah, as a side note: Ladies, listen to Weasel, she knows what she's on about. *runs in opposite direction* Just ask mistysakura. *runs much, much faster out of fear*

(Sorry, but in all seriousness - how could I resist doing that?)

[mr_pikachu]

Shonta: Well, yes, it's hard to program perfectly on the first shot. But you've still gotta try! I've spent way too many days of my life debugging Java programs because a single semicolon was missing... *cries*


Inferno: Hehe, glad you like the ringtones! Background research is good.

And as for the discovery... well... you'll see. Maybe.


Faiz: Determination pays! Although I will say, life is harder when you're sleep deprived. I had to give a lesson today after being awake for almost 30 hours straight (couldn't sleep last night)... I suspect I repeated the same point about a half-dozen times, although I don't really remember.


Blade: The migraine he had before was nothing.


Dark: Well, I'd say that stunned him pretty well. Imagine having all your skepticism proven faulty with something as simple as changing an outfit!

And believe me, sleep-deprivation is just as bad as insanity. Perhaps worse, since the latter can be controlled with drugs. Which can be crammed down your throat due to the legal rightlessness of the insane.


CEB: Hehe, well, thanks then. I do like to do that sort of thing, although it works better in this format than in a traditional fic. (People don't seem to like flipping back and forth between scenes thirty times in one chapter, for some reason.) That's one of the reasons I find this whole process entertaining.

Of course, you may not know all the pages in my suspense-building playbook... hehehe...


Weasel: "Gavinishot"?

...

"Gavin I shot"?

YOU SHOT GAVIN? NO!


Gabi: Repeatedly compiling in the short term can prevent long term hair-pulling, you're right. Although when you're first writing the code, it can sometimes be trickier to distinguish real errors from the "that'll be fixed when the rest of the program is done" complaints.

And what have I found, anyway? Maybe I'm bluffing, and I simply found a pogo stick or something. (Look! Evidence of ancient lifeforms!)


Gavin: Hey, at least it's an honest portrayal of you, Gav. It's true to life! Think of it as a bonus. ...Besides, it can't be any more embarrassing than me listening to "Team Rocket's Rockin'."

And what's the info that I've found? Maybe this will reveal a clue...

#28: Have you noticed how I sometimes use the little word bubbles to block things? In the last panel, the original picture had two additional people: Naru Narusegawa and Mitsune Konno. I couldn't completely block them out, but the brown masses that are visible could just as easily be extra furniture, or something. At least the attention is diverted.

The title is a reference to an old John Candy movie: "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles."

See that timestamp on the paused video? That was a very late addition. I'd already saved the file, then I said, "I'm changing this to make it cool." So I did. I later added a similar thing to the already-completed #19, as well. And the frames from that page make another appearance, hooray!

[mistysakura]

Nice!

Also: Gavinishot *runs*

Further proof of my innocence: I spent a long while trying to figure out what you and Gavin were referring to. I thought the same as Brian: "Gavin I shot? wtf?" Told ya I'm here straight from the cradle.

Gavin: please do not fall in love with yourself, although that could be amusing.

Anyway. Yay the plot moves on. I'm guessing we saw Becca landing on the Fanfic planet three minutes ago. Yeah, we've gotta give Brian some credit for giving way too much time to this forum. The changing clothes thing was weird, because as you said you had ignored all clothing changes until then, but I'll let it slide since you couldn't really do much about it. Oh yeah, and I do like using speech bubbles to hide stuff.

You had to give a lesson? About what? Also, about the programming, that'll teach you to use semicolons properly

[Phoenixsong]

Y'know, I've been wondering something. Is darktyranitar going to figure into this? I mean, now that he's one of the mods and all. Perhaps we have a plot twist on our hands...

I'm pleased you finally decided to fess up and reveal the mercenary's name... I wasn't about to type that whole, long thingee again.

Once again, I have miraculously managed to forget the majority of the intelligent-sounding comments I had. Whoo. Uh... just keep up the good work for now.

[Dark-San]

#28 - Now that the fanfic mods had caught up with Rebecca, will their discovery lead to a confrontation with Rebecca and as a result leading to disruption in the duel? I hope so. Time for the both the comic to merge at some point.

[darktyranitar]

Gavin is hot! That's it!

...what's with that remark, anyway?

Yeah, I bet they saw Becca landing at earth in her spaceship. Hence, the title of this chapter. Oh, and I don't think MH is going to be so happy that Ada had made that remark on his name.

And reading Phoenixsong comment: I wonder as well

[Gavin Luper]

Egad, that last line is ominous. What the hell happened three minutes earlier - and why is my character going to freak out? The cliffhangers continue.

Overall, this was as good as usual. I especially liked the stills from the surveillance video; not that it would have been difficult to create that effect, but I found it quite effective.

Dark, I think it must mean Weasel digs vampire-y people. Isn't that what Abel Nightroad is? Some kind of weird man-vampire-other thing. I don't really know. It is a bit unsettling actually that the character representing me is ... well ... that.

Oh and Ada, I won't.

Anyhoo - great work as always Brian. Keep the pages flowing. I'm guessing you have a lot more pages stocked up?

Seeya next page!

Oh - also - I didn't realise it was Team's Rocket's Rockin' ... for some reason I thought it was Team Rocket's Rocket. It always struck me as odd that they would dedicate a whole song to TR's rocket launcher.

[Hyperness is a Good Thing]

I had some problems figuring out Wurz's "gavinishot" (kept on seeing "gavin shot gavin shot") until I read mistysakura's comment =.= *blurs around*

Covering other people with the speech bubbles = brill idea. Didn't even notice until you pointed that out.
Of course I don't notice much so......=.=

O.O *agrees with Phoenixsong's comment*

[mr_pikachu]

Ada: Great minds think alike, huh? Yeah, that comment was just a little bit confusing...

The thing with the changing clothes... yeah, that's tricky to manage. I don't know if it'll come up again at any point during the entire rest of the fic, but I desperately needed that to happen to move the plot along, so yeah.

And I had to give a chess lesson. It's hard enough to teach certain concepts when I'm fully conscious; when I'm not, it's downright crazy.


Phoenixsong: You think I planned to feature Faiz? Well, since all the major plot plans were completed before Martin was demodded, I would've had to have known he'd quit ahead of time. What, you think I'm omniscient?


Dark: Perhaps we're about to have a massive clash of characters... we'll see soon enough!


Faiz: Gavin must have a fever. There's no other explanation!

Interesting how you're wondering exactly what they saw. It may or may not ever be revealed in its entirety, but in any event, the meaning behind it will be made clear.

And everyone thinks I can see the future! What's with that?


Gavin: Don't you just love a good cliffhanger? ^_^

I was quite pleased with that video, actually. It's the same effect that was in #22 (and it took me ages to figure out how to do it then), but it fits just as well here, I think.

Your character was chosen for a reason. And it's, um, totally not just because I had just finished the series and had it on my mind. Totally!

(Actually, it does have more relevance that that. Maybe.)


Hyperness: I've been covering up a lot of things with speech bubbles, actually. There are certain pictures of Mega Horny, for instance, that are taken from the covers of manga novels; I have to hide any markings like publishers logos and such. And this isn't the first time I've had to block people's faces and bodies, but it was one of the most difficult.


Today is a good day for me, despite an irritating migraine. I think I may have to start advertising the Advanced Generation area to new members, in addition to Fanfic...

#29: Six panels, one picture. Gotta love easy effects! At any rate, Blademaster's a little stuck on the whole "It's not possible but it happened" thing. Guess he didn't take his employer seriously, huh?

[Lady Vulpix]

Nice work on #28, Brian! As for #29... that's what I call a shock.

[Phoenixsong]

"Eww, Mommy, it's a pervert!"

"Don't go near him, honey! You might catch something."

<3, please. Also <3 for taking the easy way out without compromising anything.

Ah. I'd forgotten when you'd started this. Although you haven't gotten everything all planned out, have you? You could still weasel a little hint of something in if you really wanted to...

[Perfect Chaos]

#26: Aww, you finally revealed the merc's identity. I was hoping it wasn't Blademaster, just for the sake of throwing people off randomly, but oh well. His reaction in the last panel is just priceless. And apparently, TML is just misunderstood by Mega Horny?

#27: Hmm, I liked this one, despite it having a serious tone to it. Still some mystery surrounds the out-of-this-world TML *makes mysterious/scary sounds* whoooo whoooooo

#28: lol, so the mods are gathering together for the final decision on what the hell needs to be done about TML. I was chuckling for the most part after panel 4: "How drunk was his mom when he named him" (another classic). I liked Ada's reaction in the 6th panel as well as how you mention that Gavin's going to completely freak. It just made me chuckle alot for some reason, lol

#29: You bum! You're getting lazy/sloppy. Gosh, same picture for 6 panels, I expected better from you Brian [/sarcasm]. lmao, anyways, they say it takes a person a while to get over the initial shock over a very surprising event. Apparently this goes the same for Blademaster. BTW, the whole last quotes with the mom and kid just screamed Michael Jackson to me for some reason (weird isn't it?)

Damn...that's too much for me in one night

See you for #30!

-Sean

[Crazy Elf Boy]

Whoa stunned look on blademasters face + tiny children screaming = something funny install

[Dark-San]

#29 - Sorry Crazy Elf Boy, I believed my formula is more accurate.

Stunned Blademaster + perverted tag given by kids = Damaged reputation

Kids, don't try this at home. Blademaster was born with this kind of perverted face and you don't.

[darktyranitar]

I thought Mega Horny was the pervert? Or like the mom to the kid said, it is contagious?

lol at the dialogues in panel 6. The kid and the mom conversation somehow remind me a bit of Chobit. With Hideki's tendecy to speak perverted stuff out loud at the most inappropiate moment.

[mr_pikachu]

Gabi: Thanks for the compliment on #28! As for #29, well, when you're too stunned to even move from your original pose...


Phoenixsong: Hehe, glad you liked the quote! And I do think this was different from, say, #1-#3 in that the duplication of pictures was done for effect rather than because it was easy.

As for weaselling, well, I am still deciding on who will play certain characters, if that helps... I'm very weaselly that way.


Perfect: Well, it has to fit, doesn't it? Yeah, it's often sad when a revelation like that comes... that's part of why I considered not doing it at all.

And yes, TML is very mysterious. A lot more about her background will eventually be revealed, but it'll be done bit by bit. ^_^

You liked Ada's lines in #28, I see. Like I said, when she has something to say, it's a good idea to listen. Even if it's only a joke, it's invariably a good joke.

And I'm so lazy! Argh! I'm slacking off!


CEB: Interesting way of putting things. ^_^;;


Dark: I think both equations work in their own way. In any event, you're really piling on the heat for poor Blademaster!


Faiz: Well, it wasn't like they knew why Blade was saying that. Maybe if they'd seen TML transform her clothing in broad daylight, they'd have thought the same thing.

And I do see the resemblance in #6, now that you mention it. Heh... if you liked that, you should read A.I. Love You (Ken Akamatsu's first work!). The cooking scenes alone make that entire manga series worthwhile.



Anyway, I'm posting the next page early today for two reasons.


1. Because I'm packing the stuff in my room right now, and the next thing I need to do is box up my computer. And if I did that before posting the page, the page wouldn't get posted. Plus, I'm not sure how much net access I'll have over the next few days, so it's possible that this may even be the last one until Monday. I dunno.

2. To give myself a running start in escaping from... people who might expect this to be posted six hours from now. >_>;;


Finally, I'd just like to take a moment to remind all of you that the characters in this are not meant to be perfectly exact representations of Fanficcers' real-life counterparts. For instance, I'd never go on a worldwide, live broadcast with nothing censoring me but a well-placed beer can. If I was stupid enough to get naked on TV, there wouldn't be anything there. I'm not that lucky.

#30: I claim artistic license on the whole Gavin-fighting-with-me thing. That doesn't really happen. We joke at each other on occasion - I've repeatedly made him think I was stalking him - but it's all in fun. This was just a natural and necessary progression of the plot.

The fourth panel is actually from the opening theme of Evangelion. I think the angsty eyes work well here, though.

[Dark-San]

#30 - Poor poor Brian! He can't get Gavin to acknowledge the video of Rebecca. Why is that so? Something smells fishy here and it comes from Brian...

[darktyranitar]

Haha, I like the topic title! ^^

(Even when I don't play around with Photoshop much)

Yes, something is rather fishy here... wonder what it is? Is it whatever that was recorded in the video is so out-of-the-world that Gavin refuse to acknowledge it? Or could it be that he had some past clash with mr_pika?

Yep, I guess the angsty eyes do work.

[Perfect Chaos]

#30: Wow, poor Brian indeed. Gavin can't apparently acknowledge that he might be wrong about TML. Hopefully all ends well soon.

-Sean

[Gavin Luper]

Brian's lying. We often have secret duels. They can get ugly. He uses Unforgivable Curses!

Hee, great stuff as always. I'm wondering whether or not your character has maybe tampered with something - or maybe someone else tampered with the film? Or maybe my character's just too arrogant to believe that the newbie mod could be right and he wrong? More than likely. ^^

I liked the page before that too, with Blademaster, though it seemed a tad bland to use a whole page depicting his shock. But the latest one more than made up for it, if you ask me. But where has our favourite alien-girl got to? And Mega Horny, for that matter?

Seeya next installment!

[Lady Vulpix]

Ow, poor Brian! That's the problem with unelievable things: people tend not to believe them.

[Inferno_Dragon]

Issue 28: Looks the members of the Fanfiction board is catching on to what is happening. The freeze frame portion is awesome and it looks like things are going to get interesting.

Issue 29: All six panels the same but this actually helps. Poor Blademaster, he is still stuck on the fact that her clothes changed in front of him. But I like that last two line; "Mom, it's a pervert." "Don't go near him, you might catch something."

Issue 30: The title is interesting especially how you include the words Adobe Photoshop. Something is fishy going on here. Why doesn't Gavin believe what is going on? Why does he believe that the film has been edited? Something strange is going on ... and I am really intrugued.

Keep up the super awesome work, mr_pikachu.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Nerf! My computer now moves fast enough for me to wonder aimlessly on the boards like a...aimless roaming creature. ^_^ These are so very funny!! It's amazing how you managed to find perfect boxes to fit diaolog! I'm gunna keep on reading theses as long as the computer will let me! I look forward to the next instalment, Sir Pikachu! *mentaly knighted*

[Tyler and Hobbes]

I was gone for a week, and already the story's progressed around eight pages Q.Q.

It's a tad odd, but for some reason, #29 had me in fits of manic giggling for like ten minutes. I don't know - it shouldn't have been that hillarious... It's been enjoyable catching up, though, and the Mega Horny plot that tied everything together just seemed to flow so naturally. Honestly, it's like watching anime for the most part. Very nice. Though, the clothes thing... nice title, by the way. #30 took the comedy down a notch, what with your angsty-ness and Gavin's refusal to see something that shouldn't be there, but it's still good.

As for the plot, how far along are we? Say, on a scale of one to ten: are we nearer to the beginning or the end (well, obviously not the end, but I was just wonderin')?

Props on the sig, man.

[mr_pikachu]

Dark: Something smells fishy? From me? Gosh, even the readers pick on mr_pika!


Faiz: Hehe, I'm glad you like the title! The whole thing is a little hard to believe, I suppose... perhaps the next page will provide some revelations.


Perfect: "Hopefully all ends well soon." And yet another reader anticipates the end. *laughs*


Gavin: If you think simple spells are bad, wait until you see some of the stuff to come!

Hard to say which of your theories is correct, if any. But maybe if you think back to some of the early pages like #1 and #5, things will make a little more sense.

Sorry if #29 seemed bland, but it's an effect I do like to use occasionally despite the mixed results. I do think that particular aspect was used better than it was in #6, for instance, as the repetition actually served an explicit purpose this time around.


Gabi: Haha, good point! I guess we protect ourselves through self-delusion. It's hard to change something in which you steadfastly believe, huh?


Inferno: Yeah, everything's about to explode into chaos. This should be fun.

I'm glad the lines at the end of #29 worked for you. They were a blast to write and refine. ^_^

As for Gavin's disbelief... I report, you decide.


Houndoom: Hey, awesome! I'm glad you can really get into this now. If you're talking about the size of the speech bubbles, I have a standard image that I edit on my own. (It's easier than it sounds.) I do have to search for pictures of each character and such, though, which is a bit of a chore.

Hehe... Sir Pika!


fg: Well, we have been moving at around one-a-day thus far...

Awesome! I'm really glad #29 worked so well for you! And you think this is like watching anime? Wow... I'm honored. Makes me feel professional. Or at least like I can fake it. Thanks!

As for how far along we are in the plot... good question.

...


Time to get things rolling once more!

#31: The title doesn't mean that we're literally related (don't get the wrong idea, everyone!), but when you work with a group of people for awhile you start to feel sort of like family. Incidentally, the title is partially referring to the classic (and still ongoing) game show you should all know well. Also, I claim additional artistic license on the "I'm gonna kill Martin if he doesn't leave me alone" feature. Seriously, that never happened.

It's hard to fit these big conversations into such small panels...

[mistysakura]

Ooh, now Gavin's alienated mr_pika and dh. This should be interesting. The black-and-white pictures -- I wonder if Gavin's turned to the dark side. Also had a chuckle at the self-deprecation in frame 5, adn I thought that you did a good job fitting so many words into each frame without cluttering things up. Probably another result of the black-and-white frames. Yay, I guessed right (maybe?) that Becca was landing in that footage. Well, it involves UFOs anyway.

[eevee-shayna]

Mods get offices now?

[darktyranitar]

Maybe only Gavin has his own office?

Huh, interesting. So this feud between Gavin and mr_pika is bigger than I thought. Wonder if he'll actually come up with something to prove the clips are edited. Or maybe doing something even worse?

[Dark-San]

Mods get offices now?

You mean you didn't know we had offices? You are sure slow, I thought it was an open secret.

#31 - A continuation of what happen in #30. It is a frutile effort by dratinihunter to persuade Gavin. I suppose Gavin is just someone who is supposely not easy to convince and perhaps a strong- headed person. It would be interesting to see how his reaction is when he comes face to face with Rebecca.

[Gavin Luper]

The answer is obvious. Mr_pika is evil. My character, being more intuitive than the others, has detected his duplicity and is wary of his 'findings'. Dum dum dum ....

Enjoyable as always, Brian. Characterisation is getting scary though. Just to clarify: we mods don't have feuds like this. We usually keep to our offices and use the internet to take down our rivals. I definitely don't have any arguments with dh or mr_pika ... though I have threatened to kill Brian before, I think.

Whee.

[Mega Horny]

Blaft. It's all a conspiracy.

[mr_pikachu]

Ada: The dark side? Hehe... actually, I didn't do that; the pictures merely show his character in a... fairly bad mood. But we'll say it was intentional. The apparent UFO appearance should be a lot of fun, as is the self-depreciation/gratification. ^_^


Shayna: What, you didn't realize that? Once you get modded, you get to enjoy the good life.


Faiz: Hehe, how could the truth of these clips be proven? Hmm... the next few pages should be quite entertaining.


Dark: Yeah, Martin's persuasion really left a lot to be desired. It's hard to say what it'll take. And your last comment was interesting, to say the least... heh heh heh...


Gavin: Evil is in the eye of the beholder.

You're right, though; fights between mods are few and far between, and they rarely get quite like this. Still, this might be a lot more plausible if we were all interacting face-to-face for all of our decisions. Rather than think twice about all-caps text, we might just resort to yelling.

Note the creative use of "we" in that sentence.


MH: A conspiracy, you say? Is that your theory?

I wonder what your guardian has to say about all this.

#32: Yes, the running joke. Those clothes are baffling!

I'm not sure if this is truly the "original" source, but I got the title from one of the most common phrases on Jackie Chan Adventures. It would seem that Blademaster can celebrate his triumph.

Here's the million-dollar question... how long was Blademaster standing there?

[Phoenixsong]

Haha, I like the tension building between the mods, yes. My plot-twist senses are tingling... yay. (For the record, I actually don't like Spider-Man. Ugh, superhero movies...)

#32-lol pervert joke again. Although it's a bit confusing... did TML change her clothes again, or she not there and Blade's alone? I thiiiink it's the first one, but I'm sick and my brain does not work and I can't tell.

I'm very curious about this clothes-changing business, though... I'd really like to know who TML is working with/for and what significance this strange power/technology has...

[Houndoom_Lover]

^___________________________^ *somthing I actully know* It is! Well, there is a whole episode dedicated to it! They may or may not say it out side that episode XD. That was super funny and just like Blady! And the two mods arguing *shivers* It moved me! -shameless plug-I know alot about that show, I do have a story I'm writting about it. -shameless plug

[Mega Horny]

Good job on that last one, sincerely. I could hardly tell the outfit was changing. The others though?...¬¬

[darktyranitar]

Haha, pervert-joke again! And good idea to censor what Blademaster was saying with dialogue bubble.

Let's see... assuming they met somewhere in the morning... and based on last two panel... is it something between 6-8 hours?

Blademaster won? Huh.

[Lady Vulpix]

#32 made me laugh. Both the unfought battle (even though I doubted she could still be there) and the pervert joke.