Hey Debi,
No, I haven’t abandoned Wicked Crispy. I’m just terrible at updates about what’s going on. Basically right now I’ve had to put it on the shelf until mid August due to a HUGE graphic novel I’m working on for Scholastic. The deadline is crazy and is slowly choking the life out of me. I PROMISE to return in August. I’m also planning on a relaunch of sorts, with some new pages, and slightly toned down offensiveness for a variety of reasons.
I am curious to see this relaunch. Slightly toned down offensiveness makes me raise an eyebrow, but I know… YOU GOT THIS! Would the relaunch be an alternate timeline? What would happen to the current run?
Maybe Lob-star could have a higher tolerance for peanut butter? A level that doesn’t make him break in half??
Dave,
What you’rexdescribing is more of a reboot. This will only be some mild tweaks. I need this too reach a larger audience but some of the “gross” has made it nearly impossible. I’ll be introducing an “Orko” type character who is offended by almost this entire story and will do his part to clean via some creative censorship. I assure you it won’t hurt anything, and in soem cases may actually make things worse by leaving it up to the readers imagination. The original, unaltered pages will continue to be posted, I just need to figure out where.
Sounds good! I am a little perturbed by the times/society we live in. Skottie Young has a comic book (which I enjoy) called I Hate Fairyland which is decidedly not for children but uses cartoony art and that ultra-vibrant color palette. It LOOKS like it’s for kids, but is INSANELY violent. It also uses substitutions for swear words that sound similar to the words they replace. I think it’s a shame that you need to change the content of Wicked Crispy to reach a larger audience. I completely understand though. You have something you want to share with the world and you are willing to do, basically, whatever it takes. You gotta make the dream happen!
I could go on a HUGE rant about our Puritan society that’s fine with bloody violence but refuses to talk about female breasts (which by the way LITERALLY EVERY woman alive has). But I won’t.
As I type this and re-read it, I can see that it’s really a strong reaction to my…well…love for this comic and seeing you say “tone down” and “censorship”.
I am not going to go back and delete what I typed cause it sounds heated. It’s my initial reaction and it’s based on emotion.
That being said, I can totally see how the addition of a new character who is potentially overwhelmed by the content could, MOST CERTAINLY, be a good thing. It does indeed leave much up to the imagination and man, mine can run wild.
Could the unaltered pages be posted on Tumblr or Instagram? Oh, I will just imagine that wherever you post them, it’s you sneaking the story around the Orko-type character.
I’m excited already! A whole new dimension has been added. I’m in for the long haul, lemme know if you need another voice screaming into the Void.
Well, Chris, I’m certainly glad to hear you’re not gone for good, just incredibly busy. I can handle that. I won’t be able to handle it if you “tone it down” too much, though. Actually, a part of my brain understands a certain need to make it more palatable for a wider audience. Another part of my brain (I think it’s the part formerly known as “reptile”) screams for more unveiled nastiness and gore. I freakin’ love it! BTW, I’m a 60-yr-old female with a very strange sense of humor and a need to rebel at all the goody-two-shoes sh*t I had to do in my younger years to get by in an uptight, Puritanic business world. I won’t do it anymore; I won’t I won’t I WON’T!!! And Chris, I hope you can get back to writing the stuff you like really soon. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read so far. It’s sick. I love sick.
I don’t think Mr. Grine will be toning it down too much after thinking on it for a while, but maybe allowing you to use your imagination more? In theory you could make it as anti-goody-two-shoes as you want. I am amused/frustrated by society’s idea of censorship. Like your above use of “sh*t”. You didn’t type the EXACT word but what you DID type put that EXACT word in my brain. I know precisely the word you meant, and it’s meaning and tone. But in doing that it means that it’s the literal word itself that’s bad, not the tone or idea. This confounds me! I teach my kids that it’s not the literal word that’s bad when they begin to learn about swearing, or get in trouble for repeating things at school. It’s not the F-bomb word itself that’s bad. It’s that in it’s basest (most wicked?) use, what you are conveying to the person you are saying it to is that you are reaching an emotionally unstable mental state close to utter rage. It’s a warning of sorts.
I view the majority of censorship today as merely changing the delivery method of an idea to a more socially accepted method, because 99% of the time (at least for me), the idea still gets into my brain. Again, this shifts guilt onto the word. It’s like being mad at a hammer for hitting your thumb. You are, in your mind, angry at an inanimate object that you yourself have imbued with malicious intent.
Ok, done with all that, whew. Sorry…
If you read this Mr. Grine, I would merely suggest you be as creative as possible with what you choose to change and how. I point to Ryan Browne’s God Hates Astronauts. Onomatopoeia’s are all over in comics but I had never seen a use like his. He doesn’t use “ka-boom” for bomb explosions. He draws the bomb exploding and then puts “BOMB EXPLOSION!” over the fire. But it’s EVERYWHERE in the comic, and it adds another layer of humor because he doesn’t limit it to the literal description of what’s happening all the time.
One is a hilarious use to describe a character’s situation, and the second smaller one is used in place of a word bubble for the fish laughing. I can’t help but chuckle at each one.
If you find a way to cover up something “offensive” and make me laugh about it, you’ve won, because you still got the idea through AND you made me laugh.
Dave – you’re absolutely right. As long as the idea gets in, I don’t have a problem with the delivery. 99.9% of the time I get the idea, too, regardless of how it’s delivered. I guess that’s what makes it doubly absurd to blame the words. But I get it. Just think – what if we had a society that didn’t make certain words taboo? There wouldn’t be any “cuss” words. I bet language would be used a lot more effectively, since there wouldn’t be any undue stress, one way or the other, to use or not use certain words.
Kinda like imagining a world without prejudice. I’ve been mulling that one over today, thinking about the murders of 2 black men and 5 police officers yesterday. Prejudice is a survival tool; it tells us someone isn’t from our “tribe,” so, it’s a warning to exercise caution. What would it take for all humans to feel like they belonged to the same tribe? Perhaps an alien invasion? Will it take hating someone other than humans more than we hate humans of a different color, to produce love toward humans of a different color? No love without hate? No good without evil?
Sorry, I run on. I guess I’m in a pensive mood today after all the goings-on yesterday. Thanks for your reply. It was very thoughtful and got me thinking. That’s a great thing.
Oh lord, the bear is over his head. He has on a spiky helmet. It’s all good.
So what comes after the wall? Didja just quit writing, or what? Now you got me hooked; I gotta see what comes next!
Hey Debi,
No, I haven’t abandoned Wicked Crispy. I’m just terrible at updates about what’s going on. Basically right now I’ve had to put it on the shelf until mid August due to a HUGE graphic novel I’m working on for Scholastic. The deadline is crazy and is slowly choking the life out of me. I PROMISE to return in August. I’m also planning on a relaunch of sorts, with some new pages, and slightly toned down offensiveness for a variety of reasons.
I am curious to see this relaunch. Slightly toned down offensiveness makes me raise an eyebrow, but I know… YOU GOT THIS! Would the relaunch be an alternate timeline? What would happen to the current run?
Maybe Lob-star could have a higher tolerance for peanut butter? A level that doesn’t make him break in half??
Maybe Taco Frog’s mom is alive?!
My curiosity shall ferment.
Dave,
What you’rexdescribing is more of a reboot. This will only be some mild tweaks. I need this too reach a larger audience but some of the “gross” has made it nearly impossible. I’ll be introducing an “Orko” type character who is offended by almost this entire story and will do his part to clean via some creative censorship. I assure you it won’t hurt anything, and in soem cases may actually make things worse by leaving it up to the readers imagination. The original, unaltered pages will continue to be posted, I just need to figure out where.
Sounds good! I am a little perturbed by the times/society we live in. Skottie Young has a comic book (which I enjoy) called I Hate Fairyland which is decidedly not for children but uses cartoony art and that ultra-vibrant color palette. It LOOKS like it’s for kids, but is INSANELY violent. It also uses substitutions for swear words that sound similar to the words they replace. I think it’s a shame that you need to change the content of Wicked Crispy to reach a larger audience. I completely understand though. You have something you want to share with the world and you are willing to do, basically, whatever it takes. You gotta make the dream happen!
I could go on a HUGE rant about our Puritan society that’s fine with bloody violence but refuses to talk about female breasts (which by the way LITERALLY EVERY woman alive has). But I won’t.
As I type this and re-read it, I can see that it’s really a strong reaction to my…well…love for this comic and seeing you say “tone down” and “censorship”.
I am not going to go back and delete what I typed cause it sounds heated. It’s my initial reaction and it’s based on emotion.
That being said, I can totally see how the addition of a new character who is potentially overwhelmed by the content could, MOST CERTAINLY, be a good thing. It does indeed leave much up to the imagination and man, mine can run wild.
Could the unaltered pages be posted on Tumblr or Instagram? Oh, I will just imagine that wherever you post them, it’s you sneaking the story around the Orko-type character.
I’m excited already! A whole new dimension has been added. I’m in for the long haul, lemme know if you need another voice screaming into the Void.
Shy IBS-guy forever.
DB!!
Well, Chris, I’m certainly glad to hear you’re not gone for good, just incredibly busy. I can handle that. I won’t be able to handle it if you “tone it down” too much, though. Actually, a part of my brain understands a certain need to make it more palatable for a wider audience. Another part of my brain (I think it’s the part formerly known as “reptile”) screams for more unveiled nastiness and gore. I freakin’ love it! BTW, I’m a 60-yr-old female with a very strange sense of humor and a need to rebel at all the goody-two-shoes sh*t I had to do in my younger years to get by in an uptight, Puritanic business world. I won’t do it anymore; I won’t I won’t I WON’T!!! And Chris, I hope you can get back to writing the stuff you like really soon. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve read so far. It’s sick. I love sick.
I don’t think Mr. Grine will be toning it down too much after thinking on it for a while, but maybe allowing you to use your imagination more? In theory you could make it as anti-goody-two-shoes as you want. I am amused/frustrated by society’s idea of censorship. Like your above use of “sh*t”. You didn’t type the EXACT word but what you DID type put that EXACT word in my brain. I know precisely the word you meant, and it’s meaning and tone. But in doing that it means that it’s the literal word itself that’s bad, not the tone or idea. This confounds me! I teach my kids that it’s not the literal word that’s bad when they begin to learn about swearing, or get in trouble for repeating things at school. It’s not the F-bomb word itself that’s bad. It’s that in it’s basest (most wicked?) use, what you are conveying to the person you are saying it to is that you are reaching an emotionally unstable mental state close to utter rage. It’s a warning of sorts.
I view the majority of censorship today as merely changing the delivery method of an idea to a more socially accepted method, because 99% of the time (at least for me), the idea still gets into my brain. Again, this shifts guilt onto the word. It’s like being mad at a hammer for hitting your thumb. You are, in your mind, angry at an inanimate object that you yourself have imbued with malicious intent.
Ok, done with all that, whew. Sorry…
If you read this Mr. Grine, I would merely suggest you be as creative as possible with what you choose to change and how. I point to Ryan Browne’s God Hates Astronauts. Onomatopoeia’s are all over in comics but I had never seen a use like his. He doesn’t use “ka-boom” for bomb explosions. He draws the bomb exploding and then puts “BOMB EXPLOSION!” over the fire. But it’s EVERYWHERE in the comic, and it adds another layer of humor because he doesn’t limit it to the literal description of what’s happening all the time.
Here is a literal use:
http://www.godhatesastronauts.com/content/comics/2011-09-13-59.jpg
Here is an absurd use:
http://doomrocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/GodHatesAstronauts01-Page6-b93e4.jpg
Hell, I was laughing good at that hammer one…
Check out the first panel on this one. It has two examples.
http://www.vixenvarsity.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GodHatesAstronauts05_Page5.jpg
One is a hilarious use to describe a character’s situation, and the second smaller one is used in place of a word bubble for the fish laughing. I can’t help but chuckle at each one.
If you find a way to cover up something “offensive” and make me laugh about it, you’ve won, because you still got the idea through AND you made me laugh.
Dave – you’re absolutely right. As long as the idea gets in, I don’t have a problem with the delivery. 99.9% of the time I get the idea, too, regardless of how it’s delivered. I guess that’s what makes it doubly absurd to blame the words. But I get it. Just think – what if we had a society that didn’t make certain words taboo? There wouldn’t be any “cuss” words. I bet language would be used a lot more effectively, since there wouldn’t be any undue stress, one way or the other, to use or not use certain words.
Kinda like imagining a world without prejudice. I’ve been mulling that one over today, thinking about the murders of 2 black men and 5 police officers yesterday. Prejudice is a survival tool; it tells us someone isn’t from our “tribe,” so, it’s a warning to exercise caution. What would it take for all humans to feel like they belonged to the same tribe? Perhaps an alien invasion? Will it take hating someone other than humans more than we hate humans of a different color, to produce love toward humans of a different color? No love without hate? No good without evil?
Sorry, I run on. I guess I’m in a pensive mood today after all the goings-on yesterday. Thanks for your reply. It was very thoughtful and got me thinking. That’s a great thing.