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A hub for the "Book of Masks" universe. |
The Interactives "The Book of Masks" ![]() "The Wandering Stars" ![]() "Student Bodies" ![]() For non-WdC Members "The Book of Masks: Archives" ![]() "The Book of Masks (Abridged)" ![]() Community "BoM/TWS Message Forum" ![]() "BoM/TWS/SB Wiki" ![]() Current Polls None The Latest 7/1: Interactive: "Solving Other People's Problems" ![]() 7/1: Public: "Solving Other People's Problems" ![]() |
It might not have looked like it, but I have been really busy with stuff behind the scenes around here, including writing new BoM chapters. So busy that I've been forgetting to update the Homepage, even though Nostrum has been publishing daily. FWIW, here's the next Spider-Man episode in the alternate series: "S01E21 "Kraven's Amazing Hunt"" ![]() |
No, the title doesn't refer to me. It refers to the newly published treatment in the Spider-Man project: "S01E20 "I, Robot Master"" ![]() It probably doesn't work. It's inspired by dim memories I have of a bad 70s cartoon whose title sequence shows mechanical ants attacking a city. I thought it was an episode of the 1966 Spider-Man animated series, but I can't find any evidence that such an episode was ever made in that series. So I have no idea what I'm remembering or misremembering. It's like my own personal, idiosyncratic Mandela Effect, and it happens quite often. For instance, I clearly remember reading a DC graphic novel—an Elseworlds books—where the Joker was the crime fighter and Batman was the supervillain. (Everything else was the same, so it wasn't a "Crime Syndicate" story or some other, alternate comic book continuity.) Joker was a shadowy detective working with the police to take down a bat-dressing psycho who was murdering gangsters. I can see it in my head. But I am assured by all knowledgable readers of DC Comics that no such book was ever published ... |
The link: "S01E19 "The Sinister Six"" ![]() I don't have anything to say, except to explicitly acknowledge the Michelinie/Larsen miniseries "Sinister Six" as the basic inspiration for the previous six-part arc in this continuity. |
... by Masktrix and Nostrum, anyway, where they left off last. I'm still working on other stuff while also doing consulting work with them and with Achillesredux. FWIW, today's installment in the Spider-Man project: "S01E18 "The Fatal Five" " ![]() |
BoM readers have gotten a lot of content in the past few weeks, from Masktrix, Nostrum, and rugal. But you might have noticed that it calmed down over the past few days. Masktrix, in the forum, has self-reported on the challenges of continuing his story. Nostrum too has been struggling to figure out a way forward. I've been talking with both of them, acting as editor, sounding board, advisor, frenemy, etc., to give them what aid I can getting them through some pretty thorny thickets. All credit to them, though, for making a couple of breakthroughs in the past day or two. They're the authors, so there's no way I'm giving an ETA on when they might resume publishing, but I do know they are writing drafts that continue their branches. Related to that: Three of Nostrum's recent chapters have evaporated, so that his branch currently ends with Chapter 9, "To Con a Marc" ![]() Meantime, I guess I'll link to the Spider-Man chapter I posted yesterday but forgot to flog: "S01E17 "The Fearsome Four"" ![]() |
Today's episode in the alternate "Spider-Man" series: "S01E16 "The Terrible Three"" ![]() So, I have three things to say about "The Terrible Three." One: If you know your Spider-Man lore, you can probably begin to guess where the story is going, because this overall arc got its inspiration from a storyline published in the Nineties. Two: I'm not real fond of this one. It feels too much to me like a lot of running around. This is a story that would have to be played as quasi-slapstick to have a prayer of working. Three: Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with an alliterative "three" title? Batman snagged "The Terrible Trio" for one of its bad-guy gangs, and I think that's about the best that's possible, and that's not nearly good enough. * Meanwhile, reminder, if you didn't see yesterday's post: Go check out Achillesredux's Book of Masks: Freestyle ![]() |
Elsewhere, one of the projects keeping me busy has been a collaboration with Achillesredux: Book of Masks: Freestyle ![]() It is not an adaptation of any particular branch of BoM, and it is not in continuity with BoM. But what it is (IMO) is very cool. Achillesredux has done 99% of the work. He has outlined the story progression, made the images, even invented a couple of new characters. I only wrote the captions and provided feedback and suggestions here and there. So all credit goes to him. Right now, what you see is what we're calling "Chapter 1." Achillesredux has already outlined a "Chapter 2" and made a couple of images. I'm not sure when that will come, and I'm not sure if it will go up an image at a time or all at once when the chapter is fully rendered. Check back. In the meantime go check it out: Book of Masks: Freestyle ![]() Oh, a note about how to navigate it: The link above will take you to the main folder. To start reading, click on the image in the upper-left corner of the gallery, the one labelled "Part 001 Irregular moves." * I want to leave this entry at the top of the blog for a day at least, so no Spider-Man update today. |
Hmm. Yesterday brought "The One and Only Octopus." Today brings "S01E15 "The Dire Duo"" ![]() This one is in no way or form based on an animated episode, but fans of Spider-Man's early years will probably recognize the issue I used as source material. |
"S01E14 "The One and Only Octopus"" ![]() Flashback: I started this project because I wanted to write my own "Superior Spider-Man" arc, but when I watched the episodes leading up to it, I was struck by how abrupt and unmotivated so much of the lead-in was. The twist just sort of popped up out of nowhere. I also thought that Dr. Otto Octavius didn't get as much lead-in and development as he could have. In the real-world series, he's just an asshole who teaches at Horizon, and who is in an accident and so becomes a super-powered asshole. From there it's just a tiny step to supervillainy. Given that the "Superior Spider-Man" is in part about the redemption of Doc Ock, I thought that we needed more time to see how an asshole can turn into a supervillain without realizing it, because if he doesn't realize that's what he's turned into then it's much more plausible that he could change back. So I spent time in the first dozen episodes showing Otto being a jerk, and now it's time to show him becoming a super-powered jerk. This, by the way, is the arc that absolutely kicked my ass while I was trying to write it. It exhausted me, and when I was done with it I wrote up one more episode (another very close adaptation of an original) and then stuffed everything into a drawer. |
Today's episode in the alternate Spider-Man series: "S01E13 "Ultimate Spider-Man"" ![]() One of the things I really don't like about the Disney XD series is the way it gives everyone spider powers. (To paraphrase The Incredibles, when everyone is Spider-Man, no one is Spider-Man.) The only difference between the boys and the girls is that the girls are bossy and humorless, where the boys are goofy and clumsy. The only difference between Peter and Miles is that Miles is slightly nerdier. So, mazel tov: They robbed Peter of distinction without adding anything pleasant to the experience. But I did kind of like it that Peter got Miles to play with, so I bent far enough to add Miles as a Spider-Man- like colleague, though I thought it would better for the character if Miles, instead of suffering an identical spider bite and getting almost identical powers, used his brains to construct gear that mimicked Spider-Man's abilities. I also thought this would be a better demonstration of his talent and brains than giving him a lot of random, plot-saving techobabble in standalone episodes. It's also better if a character goes after something and gets it instead of waiting around for the writers to just bite him. Plot-wise, this one is fairly similar to "Ultimate Spider-Man", but with significant changes to certain details. |
Another episode in the alternate Spider-Man series: "S01E12 "School of Hard Knocks"" ![]() Like yesterday's post (and tomorrow's) it borrows heavily from a story from the real-world series, and this one is almost identical to the original. The only real change is the identity of the student who helps the heroes inside the school. He was just a rando in the original; here, by making him the Kingpin's son, I saw a way of motivating some actions that I needed to occur later in the continuity. |
The next alternate episode in the "Spider-Man" project: "S01E11 "Halloween Moon"" ![]() This one is more of a tweak to the real-world episode, not because the original is so great, but because there just didn't seem much point in doing more with it. Wherever possible, I tried making my own project easier by taking over as much as I could from the real-world series, and this was one that I brought over wholesale and only tweaked where necessary to tie it more firmly into the alternate continuity. |
For the five people who are reading my "Spider-Man" project, there's a new episode treatment up: "S01E10 "Spider-Man on Ice"" ![]() There's nothing really to say about it. It's based on an episode of the same name, but with the guts torn out and replaced with a new bunch of guts. |
To recap, for those who have forgotten or don't know what I'm talking about: Last summer I tripped onto reruns of Marvel's Spider-Man, which is a Disney XD animated series that is vaguely related to the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, in the sense that it portrays Spider-Man during his teenage years. I wasn't super-impressed by what I saw, though I appreciated certain aspects of it. (And deplored other aspects.) Then I found out that Season Three (which began airing last September) was to be an adaptation of the "Superior Spider-Man" arc from a few years back, and—for reasons obvious to any reader of BoM—I thought that was right up my wheelhouse. My original plan was to write my own adaptation of that storyline, which I would post here at WdC in conjunction with the broadcast, because it would be fun to see how what I came up with compared to what the official series came up with. After reviewing the first two series in their entirety, though, I decided to do something even more ambitious. I would basically rewrite the entire series up to that point because, frankly, I was underwhelmed by some of the choices they had made in those first two seasons. So I went back and designed my own, alternate version of the series. Replotted things, brought in some new-to-the-animated-series characters, adapted or carried over certain episodes that I thought did work, and basically just set up my own version of the thing. I had written 21 out of 38 episodes when I gave up out of exhaustion, and I had posted 9 of them. You can find those nine treatments in this new folder in my portfolio: "Marvel Spider-Man: The Alternate Series" ![]() Anyhow, my plan (time and energy permitting) is to get back into that project, and to at least finish "revising" the first two seasons. I have reread and done some editing to the treatments I already wrote, and have written a new treatment (for episode 22), and starting tomorrow I will resume publishing treatments from my backlog while pushing on into new episodes. For now, anyone who is interested to see what I've come up with can go read what I've got at the above link. If you want a sense of the pictures, movement, voices, sounds, and textures that would go with the words, you can watch the first episode of the real series on Disney XD's official YouTube channel: Horizon High, Part 1 ![]() That will also allow you to compare their version of the first episode to my version: "S01E01 "The Tilting Horizon"" ![]() |
Masktix and Nostrum are still posting chapters while I turn my attention elsewhere. And because I have plans to contribute to Nostrum's branch (eventually), I am getting a jump on that by posting his chapters in the public Archives as well. Links to those will appear in the Latest section up above, on the "Archives" line. BTW, Nostrum tells me that he outlined the plot to "Little Stone Villa of Horrors" ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Today's chapter— Interactive: "Liquored Up With Somewhere to Go" ![]() Public: "Liquored Up With Somewhere to Go" ![]() —ends my contribution to this branch, but it doesn't end the branch.** Masktrix is going to pick it up from here, and he's already got the next few chapters written. Yeah, this has been a bit of a co-production, as you might have noticed from the "assisted by" credits I've been giving him. This whole branch was mostly Masktrix's idea anyway. I was going to write "A Day That Starts Like Any Other" ![]() So I wrote "A Day That Starts Like Any Other" and "Things That Frighten You" ![]() Anyway, in today's chapter I carried the ball to the first down I needed to make, and now it's Masktrix's game. ** Except for the readers of the public pages. Sorry, but unless and until I pick up a sequel after what Masktrix will be writing, today's chapter is the last you're going to get here. * And what comes after that for me? TBH, I'm not sure. I said I would be working on Spider-Man stuff again, but I only got one more episode of that written while hammering out this branch with Masktrix. I have also been doing some consulting work with Nostrum, and writing captions for Achillesredux, and those seem to be ongoing projects. So I won't be publishing any more BoM chapters under my name for a spell, but I might still be doing BoM stuff behind the scenes. I talked about running some kind of poll based on suggestions I got from readers, but although I've got some suggestions I am going to hold off on the poll until I've done more Spider-Man work. But I don't think there's going to be a shortage of BoM chapters around here. Masktrix has some chapters in a backlog, and Nostrum has a whole glorious storyline plotted out. |
Yesterday I said I was going to publish some chapters early in BoM, in order to set up an arena for Masktrix. (Which he is not obligated to play in; he only expressed an interest in it.) That chapter is now up: Interactive: "A Day That Starts Like Any Other" ![]() Public: "A Day That Starts Like Any Other" ![]() Yes, that is very early. Will has just got home with that book he found at Arnholm's, and he's decided to bury it in his room and forget about it. It will be followed with ... two or three chapters? Maybe? I also said that after that I'd be moving to a non-BoM project, and hinted that I'd be returning to my "alternate" Marvel Spider-Man. After reviewing those files, I've decided that, yes, that will be the project I tackle. At the very least, I'd like to finish outlining my alternate version of Seasons One and Two. Then we'll see if I've got the gumption and energy to write out my own version of the "Superior Spider-Man" arc that Season Two pointed toward. |
Just because I am working on something else—see below—doesn't mean I won't be coming back to BoM. There are places I would like to pick up again. I just don't have the enthusiasm at the moment. In the meantime, though, I'd like to hear from you guys about what you'd like to see. I thought about running a poll, but I don't want to offer the same few areas again. But neither do I want to commit myself to a commission. So here is my attempt to meld the two: Write to me with your preference for where you'd like to see the story continued. I will sort through them, and post some of them at least in a poll so the community as a whole can express a preference. A few guidelines: I am not looking for story or plot ideas. I want the freedom to make up whatever I want. I am asking for chapters that you would like to see continued; developed situations (like Sydney and her Brotherhood idea) you would like to see developed; characters or character sets you'd like to see get some face time. That sort of thing. You can post in the comments here, in the forum, or through email. If you don't have a WdC account, you can reach me thru seuzz -at- writing.com. I'm not going to post a deadline for submissions. We'll see how things look after a couple of days, but I will look to be posting a poll around about the end of the week. |
At the start of the year I outlined my writing plans: I was going to be flexible this year. I wasn't going to dedicate huge blocks of time to particular projects, as I tried to do in 2019. Instead, I would set aside smaller blocks--a week or two, maybe--and either work on them until the deadline passed, or press on past the deadline until I had lost enthusiasm. I started by dedicating the first two weeks to Book of Masks. And here we are, in the middle of March, still on Book of Masks. A bunch of commissions kept me busy, and I wound up working with Masktrix to set up a whole new setting for BoM adventures. But I've reached the end of my string, I think. Commissions are fun, but they take a lot out of you. Starting tomorrow I'm going to publish a very short line of chapters early in the story—very early—to help set up an area Masktrix has expressed interest in. And then I'm going to go work on something else. I'm not sure what. I'm leaning toward that Spider-Man project; I don't like leaving things unfinished. In the meantime, everyone who has been emailing me with questions and ideas and BoM-related projects—you know who you are—you keep right on doing that. I'm not tired of BoM. I'm just tired (for the moment) of coming up with my own stuff. |
New chapter from me today: "Vee Is for Visit" ![]() That is a sequel to Masktrix's "What Chance Have You Got Against a Tie and a Crest" ![]() It ends with three choices, and over the next three days I'll publish those sequels. In the meantime, readers of the public "Archive" pages can continue to catch up to where interactive readers are with seven new-to-them chapters, starting with "Mix and Match and Masks" ![]() |