Below is commentary from Echo, with the most recent entries at the top...



APRIL 2009

Well, I said I wasn’t going to do it, but I did it. I have “remastered” some of the old episodes.

For many months I have tried to convince myself that the blurry early episodes were “not that bad,” and that I should focus on what I’m working on now. But it has haunted me all this time, knowing that I could go back and make them better. And maybe those early episodes were shot badly enough to make someone stop reading the comic. (Or, to sum up, “Tragedy is Comedy plus Time.”)

So I reshot forty of the blurriest panels from six of the early episodes: Four, Five, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Thirteen.

But now that that’s done, I’ll just have to come up with something else to worry about, some other thing that is causing readers to stay away in droves. Maybe it’s my Web 1.0 interface. I thought people would appreciate a cleanly-built page with no ads for novelty t-shirt companies or animated banners flogging some comic webring or other. But maybe people actually are put off because it doesn’t “look like a webcomic page should look.”

Once someone’s read a few episodes of Blue Goo, what makes them want to read more? What makes them leave and never come back? I wish I knew. When I expressed this to Sean, he said, “You know what, though? Penny Arcade has the same problem. They don’t know who reads their comic or why.” I replied, “Yes, but when you make enough money on merch and sponsorship that you can quit your job and draw a webcomic full-time, that’s a pretty good indication that you’re successful.”

On the other hand, when you’re me, and you have about 15 regular readers, it’s harder to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing.

But I guess what’s really important is that Sean and I enjoy producing Blue Goo, and even if I never have more than 15 readers, it’s a thing I’m proud to have created, and I can always look back and say “I made all those. And some of them weren’t even that blurry.”

(Anyone who’s interesting in soothing my shattered nerves can email me.)



MARCH 2009

Mandel's role in the comic is basically the cliché of the time-traveler turned inside out. Normally, if a story has a character who travels through space and/or time, that character, and that ability, is the focus of the series (like Quantum Leap, H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, or Doctor Who). Plus, anyone they encounter who learns of their ability is flabbergasted, and usually wants to come along. But at Blue Goo, Mandel shocks no one with his mysterious appearance, not with the revelation of his origins. (Except Dev, who is not amazed by the time travel itself so much as by the opportunities it presents for the magazine he edits, Justified Paranoia Digest.) On the contrary, the people he meets weird him out. Everyone at Blue Goo is so wrapped up in themselves, and so accustomed to bizarre show-biz behavior, that no one even bothers to ask Mandel about what it's like to be a frickin' alien, or if Mandel might let them sneak a trip with him to the future, or to some distant planet.

Z.R.'s current plight, trying to get himself a lead role in a series, is my attempt to reflect the frustration of minority actors. But not being black myself, I've based his feelings just as much on my own frustrating experience of being a female consumer of entertainment:

In a similar way to black actors being cast in unmemorable "black" movies, female actors are cast in "chick flicks," which have no substance and are completely uninteresting to any person who is not a woman, and many people who are women. And just as black actors, even in contemporary mainstream, film will play "the black guy" (such as Morgan Freeman's Magical Negro in Shawshank Redemption), when an actress is cast as an action hero she gets to kick ass…while still being "the hot chick." And any dilemma to be resolved in a drama with a female lead is a "female" dilemma.

Why? It's not like it can't be done any other way. The original Alien screenplay has no first names. Until Sigourney Weaver was cast as Ripley, no one said that Ripley was definitively male or female. When you see Weaver doing her thing in Alien, you don't say, "Oh, come on, she couldn't do all that! She's just a woman!" Because she just does what Ripley does in the script, like it ain't no thang. Another example: Jodie Foster regularly solves "gender-neutral" dilemmas in films like Silence of the Lambs and Flight Plan. She doesn't have to flash her tits or wear stiletto-heeled boots, she doesn't need to be shown how empty her life is without a man in it. There is a problem, and she solves it with her brain.

But how often do we see that? Take, for example, three of the movies in the top ten at the box office this week: Confessions of a Shopaholic, He's Just Not That Into You, and… Madea Goes to Jail.

Which brings me back to Z.R.

What Z.R. wants is not to bring a "black" sensibility to the comic. He doesn't want to turn the next Blue Goo production into a Spike Lee joint. He just wants a chance to be a leading man. His attitude is, I'd like to play someone besides "the Moor," please, I'm not particular beyond that.

Maybe Z.R. made the wrong choice in signing up with Blue Goo, which does historical webcomics. But then again, maybe Blue Goo made the wrong choice, in ignoring black people in history.



DECEMBER 2008

Wow. I swear, when I was making those first twenty episodes or so, those panels did NOT seem that blurry to me. How embarrassing. I go back and look at those and can't believe I was satisfied with them.

Ah well. Show me a webcomic that didn't get off to a shaky start. Show me one that has not changed and improved over the months and years, hm? One must soldier on. I'm not George Lucas; my crappy early work is going to stay crappy.

I'm looking forward to posting the upcoming episodes. Those of you who have been following the story (I'm writing this under the assumption that people actually do read this comic) might be excited to learn that in the next month, Mandel's true identity and backstory will be revealed!

NOVEMBER 2008

The other day I was checking the web stats for Blue Goo, and I noticed an unusual spike on November 11th. Five times as many people as usual viewed episode 58! At first, I was elated --- someone had obviously put the word out about Blue Goo, and it was finally getting the attention (I feel) it deserved.

But then I scrolled down to check out the referrer pages, to see who had publicized my site. I found instead that the reason episode 58 got so many views was because someone on LiveJournal had hotlinked to the episode. He wanted to make a webcomic just like mine, with his kids' Playmobil toys and everything. The only difference is, he wanted to make his actually, you know, good.

One commenter said, "This 'comic' [Blue Goo] is clever in concept, it's about as funny as a gut full of pin worms." Replied the OP, "Oh, unquestionably." A third said, "visually it's very boring." And a fourth noted, "They are stuck with the same facial expressions." (Sorry, lady, they come that way from the factory.)

This, on the other hand, was touted as a successful venture into the concept of Toy Webcomic:

http://irregularwebcomic.net/2123.html

As you can see, the visual style is much more exciting and dynamic.

…

…

*snort* Oh, excuse me, I fell asleep.

Well, sir, I say good luck with your own project. Mine may be boring and unfunny, but you'll always be the guy that stole his ideas from a boring, unfunny webcomic.

Also, your website of erotic photographs may employ latest in the TCP/IP technology that your pretentious ass claims to have invented (oh, you're so old-school, it makes me tingly!), but the photos themselves? Straight out of Playboy, circa 1989. I mean, come on, a chick in a white garter-belt sitting on a wooden fence in front of some abandoned farmhouse?

(Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe guys like their lingerie-clad women covered in splinters and pine needles with green stains on their asses.)

Also, you hotlink. So now you're basically a Criminal of the Interwebs.

Q.E.D.!

Okay, but seriously, folks, I don't give a rip if strangers on the internet hate my website. You know who the first person was to tell me my website was stupid and not funny? My MOM. Ouch. So by now I'm kind of getting over criticism.

OCTOBER 2008

Up to now, it's been difficult to come up with things to write about here, because most of the ideas and inspirations I've had, I couldn't talk about because they were full of "spoiler" material. Sean and I already know where Mandel came from, and what he was doing before he showed up at the studio, but I can't tell you about it because it hasn't happened for you guys yet. But now that 50 episodes have gone by, and we've established all the major characters, I have a few things I can say.

Let's talk about Linda Lemuria. With Linda's appearance, I could accomplish many things:

First, I could introduce another female character. I like the core group the way it is now, with Tan, Hanlon, Z.R., Nigel, Mandel, and Caitlin. Caitlin is the only female among them, and her place in the group is the Little Sister. I based the group dynamic on the idea of a young girl who has five older brothers. The men have known Caitlin since she was a baby; she was raised by them, so they aren't attracted to her in a romantic way. In fact, they feel the need to protect her from any corrupting influence she might encounter, and their reasoning is the same as the reasoning of any protective father or older brother: "We know what men are like. We know what they're after."

So I liked that there was only one female in the core group, but eventually you're going to need a female character who is older than, or not as sweet as, Caitlin. In this case, I needed to prolong Caitlin's conflict concerning a "kick-butt" lead role. So this is where I managed to accomplish two things: Not only could I introduce another female character, but I could introduce her as Caitlin's rival. If Caitlin simply asked for the part, and then Mandel wrote it for her, and Tan cast her, it would be too easy. Why would it have taken this long to get such a role, if it was so easy? So I made Tan oblivious to Caitlin's abilities, and he shoves her aside in favor of casting Linda Lemuria, who is everything Caitlin isn't: an older, cynical, diva who is completely stuck on herself and cares not a whit for anyone else, or for the production.

And thus we have the third piece of the puzzle: a chance to skewer another show-biz stereotype. Prior to Linda's appearance, the closest thing we had to a "diva" was Hanlon, but Hanlon is only a mega-famous star in his own mind. He wants to be the leading man a la Tom Cruise or Will Smith, but in actual fact he's just another poorly-paid stock actor on a low-budget production, with no entourage and no fawning public. Linda, on the other hand, is the real deal. I picture her as being somewhere between Cleopatra-era Elizabeth Talyor and Gloria Swanson's character in Sunset Boulevard. Her star is starting to fall, but she's still popular enough that people will cast her in roles that she obviously isn't suited for, in order to maximize profits, while the next generation of actors, still relatively unknown but truly talented, are ignored because their bankability hasn't been established.

(I know at this point you're thinking, "But this isn't film, this is a webcomic." You can't tell me that there aren't celebrities in the world of webcomics, with reputations analogous to film stars. The Penny Arcade guys are Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt, a sure thing at the box office but with real talent. XKCD? Well, that's Judd Apatow, the new wunderkind who shows up with a distinct style that seems too simple, like it might get tiresome real quick, but instead knocks 'em out of the park over and over. So to understand the significance of Linda's being cast in a comic, imagine if it was announced that Jeff Jacques was going to be a guest artist on some rinky-dink webcomic that no one reads….like this one.)

But the fourth and final piece, the one that makes the whole thing come together, is that it is Linda's diva behavior that gets her off the set, and gives Caitlin the opportunity to step up. Like any sitcom, here a conflict has been created with its own built-in resolution.


As always, your patronage and e-mails are appreciated. :)

JULY 2008

Launching Blue Goo Studios was a big thrill, but I’m looking forward to posting more episodes now more than ever, because the story is warming up and the characters are starting to develop. I want to thank anyone who saw the first five episodes and kept reading – this is a serial comic, like QC, so patience is required of the reader so that the story can unfold. I promise that you’ll all soon be rewarded with palace intrigue, alien life forms, and wacky adventures!

We haven’t gotten the kind of feedback we’d hoped for, but then again, I was spoiled rotten by the runaway success of my Trek posters…I suppose it would be difficult for someone like li’l ol’ me to top 150 fan emails a day for my work. But Sean and I have had a blast writing and producing the comic, so we’re going to keep on making it. We have over 80 episodes already written, just waiting to see the light of day, so stick around and see how things turn out.

Thanks for reading, and if you’re interested in enough in the comic that you’ve made it this far, please support us by telling your friends about Blue Goo!

MAY 2008

After months of work, it’s a huge thrill to see the launch of the site. Having produced the Star Trek Inspirational Posters, a throwaway idea that became a runaway hit, I can't wait to find out if the months of effort on Blue Goo will result in a similar impact on the internet.

I want to talk a little bit about the things that inspired Sean and I when producing this comic.

Back in October of 2007, I was itching to put together a new webiste (I collect them, you see), and for some reason this time around I had an urge to make a webcomic. Fooksburgh had been such a labor of love, taking up more time and resulting in less fan response than any other website I'd built; this time I wanted to create another such ongoing series, but with a broader potential audience.

The concept was based on two favorite motifs of mine: the ragtag band of misfits, and the cartoon characters who are aware they are in cartoons. My go-to example for the self-aware fictional character has long been Looney Tunes. Take for example Duck Amuck, where Daffy directs his director, or the The Scarlet Pumpernickel, featuring Daffy Duck. First we see Daffy-as-writer, pitching a story to a producer. Then cut to Daffy-as-actor, portraying the lead in the story he's pitching. I love this concept, because now the structure of the universe you've created has doubled in size, leaving you more room to develop and motivate characters in different ways.

So I had this idea in my head, about making webcomic characters who were aware they were in a webcomic, but was dreading the prospect of having to actually draw it. Then one day I was in a toy store with Sean, who was fixated on the Playmobil toys. He told me about people at gaming conventions who had written up rules for tabletop games using Playmobil figures. (Think of a rounder, cuter, pastel Warhammer.) And then it hit me: Let's make the webcomic together, and use Playmobil!

Since that first spark of inspiration in October of 2007, we’ve been consistently brainstorming, buying Playmobil, and putting together episodes. The entire thing has been a learning process; with the production of each episode, we discovered a new feature on the digital camera, a new use for a particular Playmobil item, or a new way to streamline the Photoshop process. So sometimes you'll see a glitch, a continuity error, or a blurry photo. But hey, just go back and watch the first season of The Simpsons, and you'll see that all productions take time to evolve, correct themselves, and establish a canon.

Certain characters are based on real people. Dev is based on my tendency to turn perfectly respectable conversations into forums for my opinions about such things as the military-industrial complex, political assassinations, and the origins of the American public school system. Like Dev, I've spent so much time reading up on conspiracy theory, I see every aspect of society as a cause of, a function of, or a result of the aims of the would-be One World Government.

Caitlin was inspired by my younger cousin and protege, whose inevitable journey towards adulthood I have witnessed and wept over; but not only me: I noticed that every guy friend of mine who met her initially asked me exactly how long they would have to wait before she turned eighteen. But after knowing her for a short while, they stopped seeing her as a prospect and started seeing her as a kid sister. They became extremely protective of her, threatening potentially predatory boyfriends with physical harm, and so on. This is where the behavior of the other crew members toward Caitlin came from. Her character concept was based on my wish that Caylean would always be a plucky, wide-eyed fourteen-year-old, whip-smart and witty, not yet having succumbed to all that pitfalls of womanhood that I'd read about in Reviving Ophelia. It seems like these days the only purpose of innocence, in life and in art, is corrupt it. Everyone wants to get the naive, sheltered kid drunk and buy him a hooker, metaphorically or sometimes literally. I wanted to create a character who was, admittedly, static, but in being static avoided what I see as life's harshest inevitability: sooner or later, it seems, everyone has to start drinking, drugging, smoking, partying, boinking, and tattooing.

Mandel is to an extent based on the Doctor, but after Sean and I established Mandel's origin, his character began to come more from Sean himself, whose attitude toward everything in life can be summarized by a popular line from XKCD: "Stand back, I'm going to try science!" Of all the characters in Blue Goo, Mandel, his motivations, and his ideas bear Sean's greatest contributions.

Stay tuned, because other characters will emerge and other inspirations will be revealed. Sean and I hope you enjoy the show; please tell us what you think.