Archives and Out of Sequence Comics

Well. You are frustrated I'm sure. Reading along hitting the next comic button and suddenly the story is gone. A whole different story is taking place.

Let me tell you about Star Wars. I saw A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi as they came out. When Star Wars came out I was in the third or fourth grade. We didn't go to the movies much when I was that age. The movies I remember from that era were Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Inframan, and Star Wars. So, as a third of the movie franchises I can recall Star Wars was active in my mind a good bit.

So when the 'prequels' were starting I had some personal misgivings. I already had an Old Republic in my mind. Many of the things that were hinted at or mentioned in the movies I had already fleshed out and had a real mythic substance to me. I have yet to see the newer movies and it is likely I will not. I have absolutely no desire to. I also wish I could unwatch the director's cut of Highlander. I liked having his secretary's past as a mystery.

Before I digress further. I'm writing this comic with several dozen individual story arcs with a definite final conclusion. But, the way I have this all pieced together is rather loose, much of my dialog is first draft. I'm adding things and taking things away and practicing every piece of bad storytelling I can stumble into. I need to leave an opening where I can go back and tack pieces in later. I work on things as I get to them with the only real logic being that I don't post so far ahead to ruin a dramatic moment.

For example, at this time I have to finish Marla's summer with llxl before I can start the next school year because I don't want to give away the outcome of her summer arc before I finish it.

To facilitate the non-linear presentation I created a false fourth wall. That these comics are the ramblings of some third party discovered and studied after an undisclosed event and are being presented as an archives project. In true Lovecraftian fashion reading the works in the raw have unsettled the archivists creating the spotty presentation.

Throw in a 3 year semi-hiatus and the confusion grows.

Their are now two main ways to view the comic now. As it was presented, just plugging away at the 'next comic' button, hoping to figure out what is happening as pages are presented or the Archive Page which lists the comics as they happen (small versions of the archives is framed into the individual comic pages also).

I would be interested in what people think watching the new pages come up and trying to remember where they may fit before 'cheating' and going to the archives page to find out where I put it in the linear story.

What is relevant to what I said about Star Wars prequels is that the actual creation and presentation is not linear and leaves some of the burden of connecting events and filling story gaps to the reader. I personally like the mystery over the fact.