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Yay! Here it is! The beginning of the next adventure!
I’m switching from audio versions of the strips to alt text, both imbedded in the image and at the end of the blog post.
———————-Alt Text———————-
It was daytime on planet Tithoron and the tan sky rested sedately over the dry rocky hills. The Festus Loomp Science Building was prominent and looked like it surely contained only serious work. And in front of it stood Picknar, a furry moppish alien with four hooves and two arms and large round eyes. Discerningly they double-checked their approxiscan, a wonderful device which is a combination of scanner, galactic communicator, and information provider which read, “high-risk consciousness exchange experiment. Pays really really well, honest!” Unimpressed, they muttered, “it’d better.”
———————-/Alt Text———————-
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I don’t generally listen to things other than podcasts on my phone, but have ALL your audio descriptions read like novels?
@Jeff_K!, no. Unfortunately they haven’t. They were mostly me counting the panels and reading the dialogue. Part of why I switched to written text this time was that I wanted to do a better job.
If your textual descriptions continue in a similar vein, I am here for it! A sparse few other comics do alternative textual storytelling alongside the comic pages, but when they do I find reading the comic, then reading the alt text, and then re-reading the comic page makes for extra goodness. (often on the initial comic read I’ve missed a visual cue, or didn’t pick up on a particular “verbal” emphasis, etc. that I then get to appreciate on the 2nd scan 🙂
Thanks, @Mike_O’C. And yes, I hope they continue like this. I’ve thought a lot about it. The audio descriptions I did before were pretty minimal and mostly focused on merely who was talking and what they were saying. And so I wanted to convey the information in a way that was more helpful and gave a fuller picture to those who have trouble seeing, and after trying writing it a BUNCH of different ways, mimicking a novel felt the most readable and engaging and clearest at conveying information (even sometimes like in today’s strip providing a name and some physical descriptions one won’t get for a couple strips because using pronouns a lot before giving a name can get a little messy in prose).
I’m not saying it’s the best method, and I’m sure some people might want a drying clean blow-by-blow “in the next panel” description. But I hope most will feel this was a good choice.
But I admit, also in the back of my mind is that in the end I might also EDIT THE HECK OUT OF IT and then print a companion novel for the few who are interested.
That does sound like a decent evolution in your storytelling. I’m looking forward to seeing this new story unfold.
Yeah, what Mike said. (Also, you surely need more stuff to do…)
This is going to make searching for that one comic from way back when that had something happen soooo much easier. The archive is a nice list, but the titles don’t summarize enough to make them suitable to a trivia search. 😀
We were promised hooves, there are no earth stomping hooves, I’m disappointed.
I’m hoping this is a book about an epic set of bells encircling the planet rather than some simple tintinnabulation.
Or perhaps a sport venue in the town of Bells.
We may instead posit an epic set of bowels encircling the planet for some truly gargantuan borborygmication. 😀
It’s an identity theft scheme. The one paid really well is the identity thief.
Oh, yes. Nothing can go wrong here……
I like the written text – I’m glad I don’t have to click a link to hear it!
Love the text. It’s interesting how different the feel is between the two. I wonder if you will end up with a novel, as well as a comic.
I love this alt-text approach, with additional info.
Objective appraisal: I find it both commendable for the effort you put into it, and a cool new format for having such a detailed narrative alongside the comic. Amazing job!
Subjective feedback: That said it does feel a bit like the comic is now the illustration for the narrative, and not the other way around, which would be my personal preference, as to me it kinda defeats the purpose of the otherwise amazing visual storytelling (just think about the mice!) you were doing in the background, while it would make me feel anxious of missing something would I choose not to read the alt text.
Not sure how I would change it (if at all), just sharing my unfiltered thoughts, I’m sure you know way better what to do with them 🙂
@Totematika, that totally makes sense the feeling of the words superseding the comic. I’d feel a bit FOMO about not reading it too.
I do wish to do it for the visually impaired first, and might have a novelized version once done (after tons of editing). But if it helps to know, I do write and draw the comic first, and then base the text on what I’m seeing (or feel I’m trying to convey).
I know in this example I mention the hooves and the character’s name (neither of which are shown today), but that was simply to make it easier to follow if one is JUST reading the text, and neither is plot important and both will be shortly shown. And I don’t think I’ll make a regular practice of saying anything which isn’t a descriptor.
Makes sense. And yes, knowing the comic is the source does help, thanks.
Love the new Alt-Text.
Reads like a Novel, you could publish Space Trawler as a book (Amazon e-book for example) while keeping the comic for those that prefer the visual art.
I love your art but I find your prose as engaging.
Congrats,
Just for fun I fed your Alt-Text into Midjourney, asking it to imitate your style. You’re safe for the time being. I think this URL should work:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1089999291277381804/1176309817682448536/bruceeckel_In_the_style_of_the_cartoonist_Christopher_Baldwin_I_b49125f5-19f9-4350-bb76-ca4a1b195339.png?ex=656e66e3&is=655bf1e3&hm=58e85a25c8a6d449ce8fe75fcf0ece6ca5ae77a4b03fe415b5ff2127f41f36e4&
Even before we get to swapping heads, we’re swapping perspectives, and some of them fit less well than you might have hoped they would. Strange and semimalleable age we live in.
Will this universe include Diller?
So text vs illustration as a narrative medium. I think the way to avoid redundancy, which inevitably results in either the illustrations or the text becoming the dominant form, is to allow the two to diverge in minor, but interesting ways. Text is superior for triggering the reader’s imagination, in ways that do not directly affect the plot. Character reactions are the most typical form this take. You have already begun down this path by giving us the scene’s point of view character a name, which isn’t found in the cartoon. I would add a little more, though not much, perhaps by expanding a bit on his (his?) emotional reactions. Some hint or foreshadowing regarding why he is interested in making money, or something along those lines. In the illustration the main piece of information that is not found in the text is his facial expression. Don’t describe that in the text at all. This will maintain a degree of divergence between the two without changing anything essential. The reader can decide for themselves which they regard as the dominant mode, but there is an incentive to at least pay attention to each of them,.
Chris, you successfully diverted the topic of discussion ~off the title part that I found curious:
BOOK 11
!!!!!
I guess I wasn’t paying attention, that you have internal “books” to your printed books?
I like the alt text just fine but will miss your pronunciations.
And I’m rather surprised that you’ve not written these into (at least) first draft novels.
I volunteer to be one of your editors, if you like. I do grammar (and know enough to leave the individual voices, of both the writer and the character(s) and content.
No charge to you, of course. After all, you give us this lovely Thing for free. 😀
Oh forgot.
May I suggest, instead of “alien”, you use “being”? After all, THEY don’t think of themselves as an alien, right?
Books 1-3 were Martina’s storyBook4 was Emily’s Darkhuenium mysteryBooks 5-7 were Mauricio’s storyBook 8 was a Wezzle and Bikkie asideBook 9 is Aitana’s story in fourteen chaptersBook 10 was Choan and Ruddock’s storyso now Book 11.
hmm. my nicely placed breaks disappeared so the formatting sucks, but the info is here.