My character ARC continues, and I forgot my soothing meds at home today, let’s go…
The Fifth Ace Showcase returned this week, and shall continue to update on schedule, provided that there are no major upheavals in the days to follow. This marks the beginning of Issue #4, and I have a feeling that this story, and the ones that follow, will probably make this one of the darker issues I’ve done to date. I’ve hinted at some of the darkness of my little superhero universe in the previous issues, but I think this one may have some potentially unnerving implications for things to come. I don’t intend to make this series a horror show or a dark drama; cynical as I may be in real life, I like to write stories about good overcoming evil and hope existing in the world. Even at my darkest, I always aim for a happy ending, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be some drama along the way, or it wouldn’t be a satisfying payoff, otherwise.
That said, there is most definitely an edgier side to… y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever given my superhero universe its own name. “The Fifth Ace Universe” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same way “Marvel Universe” does; I’ll keep brainstorming. But I digress; I’ve mentioned something called “The Nadir” in a few of the Showcase stories so far, and it has yet to be fully explained in-story. While it’ll eventually come up in full at some point, what I can tell you is that The Nadir is a prequel era to the current stories, which are set in “The Zenith” of Apex City. The Nadir takes place approximately 15 years before the current stories, featuring the older superheroes of Apex in their prime, before giving way to the new generation in The Zenith.
It’s my intention to explore the stories of this previous generation in a supplement to the regular stories in the Showcase, done in a nifty greyscale screentone style, but given my lack of free time, it hasn’t come to fruition yet. The plan is to eventually release the various issues of Fifth Ace Showcase as paid digital downloads, or make them available through a crowdfunding site like Patreon, and the Tales from the Nadir would be included as exclusive backup stories as incentives for purchase. As such, until such time that I actually have a crowdfunding site set up, and the free time to draw these tales, they will remain untold for now.
In relation to all this, I wouldn’t mind trying out some darker storytelling in general; while I believe the superhero genre should remain optimistic (despite what some modern writers might have you believe), there are plenty of other genres where a cynical tone can thrive. I was recently reminded of my playthrough of Ironsworn through a convoluted train of reminders that I won’t get into, and that game is almost the definition of bleak. I did have the idea of adopting my playthrough (which you can watch on my YouTube channel, icon is on the right) into an illustrated serial, along the lines of Prince Valiant: more prose, fewer panels, in a more Frazetta-inspired painterly and/or sketchy style. Ironically, that playthrough ended on a rather positive note, but there was a lot of drama throughout that would suit a pulp adventure quite well. One more thing to add to the pile of potential projects…
How about that; I wrote a blog post on my comic website that is actually about the comics for once instead of spending the entire time angsting about my life; just a touch of it here and there to keep things thematic. Hopefully now that I’m getting back into the groove of creating, that’ll start becoming the norm, provided that life doesn’t throw me anything more to angst over.
Ciao for now.