'Teamwork' woes
Every time I speak to Napz and Yoshi, it seems that the comic is becoming less and less of 'our venture' and more 'their venture'... To better understand where I'm coming from... Allow me to tell you a tale. A tale of the creation of our comic. A tale... Well you get the idea.
The idea originally spawned from some rather philosophical chatting between Yoshi and myself over a few friendly (although horribly one sided) SSBM games... We decided that we couldn't live meaningless lives within an office cubical, doing work that no one will appreciate till we don't do it, and never leaving our mark on anything. We wanted more. We wanted to be known. To be a chatroom name. We wanted to be omnipresent across the internet. And thus, the comic's original, very vague form was born unto this world.
Now, our biggest concern was that neither of us knew anything about the whole debacle. And so we buckled down and eventually emerged with an Alpha version. "Level Up". It was an ongoing story about 2 best friends who spent their days within the worlds biggest and most needlessly complex arcade. This was going along rather well till we realised we actually knew very little of arcade's these days. And so the project was scrapped entirely.
Next, we created our brain child. Our favourite and someday, hopefully a well selling comic book. Game Over. It was a very elaborate, action packed story of how the video game producers were evil tyrants, and the developers had to enlist the help of key gamers across the globe.
Now. Onto the next issue. Neither of us could draw (Yoshi being severely out of practice). And so, I enlisted the help of a newfound friend 'Pickle Jar'. But what we soon came to realise was that he was highly unreliable, and ultimately a rather useless guy. We got one pic that had nothing to do with anything.
After grieving over out artist issues, we made a new idea to harbour our more erratic ideas that would not fit into Game Over. We would later dub the comic 'Friendly Fire' as a temporary name... But for now, we wrote and wrote and came out with a number of scripts.
It was at this point, that Yoshi was struck with a revelation. His old friend Napz was a brilliant artist. Perhaps he could help? And so we contacted him. He agreed very quickly, and even moved closer for convenience.
This was were my troubles began (Cue bitching)... Yoshi and Napz go way back. Primary school way back. And thus, they seemed to share some kind of, higher level of friendship than that of Josh and I. Which has proven evident as they often tend to plan things for the comic without asking me... And often, they planned to do things or go places or just plain hang out. Now, I wouldn't so much mind this, if not for the fact that I often receive back word that there was a rule to keep these things hush, hush from me.
The biggest issues I have, are that they often gang up on me over issues within the comic. Never have I had someone agree with me on something that someone else did not agree with. Thusly, I always end up feeling as tho my opinion holds little value in the whole matter.
First it was every name I've ever suggested for the comic (Granted some were bad... But I've had some good ones too) Then it was Mav's name. They tried to tell me that it was unrealistic, and that I could not use it, whilst Yoshi was apparently perfectly fine. And now, after Yoshi and myself worked out what the Pilot issue would be (A jumping the shark reference) Napz decided he didn't get it, and thus didn't like it. Ok. Fair cop. But then Yoshi changes positioning and decides he no longer likes it either. Back to square one I guess...
And now, they have both decided on a pilot, and without seeing what I think, or asking for my input to any degree, they are now creating this comic, even as I type this. So I decided that perhaps my 2 cents were valued to some degree, and suggested something that would give the issue more of a 'first issue' feel to it. To which I was greeted by their comment of 'Oh it doesn't need to feel like a first issue'...
Is it just me? Or am I not part of this thing anymore? Because seriously? I don't remember the last time my input was given any credit, or the last time that I was asked about anything. The only times it gets brought up to me these days is when I'm already there and it just seems convenient.
(Authors Note: I realise that the bitching about them not telling me about going places has nothing to do with the core rant... I just felt like getting that outa my system as well)
CYOTFS
- Mav
