State of the Wall: 1-27-13

Well, time for another State of the Wall post!

As before, all updates are under the "Read More" link, including the schedule of upcoming episodes and general updates about Atop the Fourth Wall and Linkara-related matters.


Schedule of Upcoming Episodes
2/4 – Miller Time: All-Star Batman & Robin #5
2/11 – DOUBLE FEATURE CONCLUSION TO THE "GUN AND SORCERY" ARC - Tentative
2/18 – Marville #4 - Tentative
2/25 – Titans Retrospective: Team History
3/4 – Titans Retrospective: JLA/Titans: The Technis Imperative
3/11 – Titans Retrospective: The Titans #1-25
3/18 – Titans Retrospective: The Titans #26-50
3/25 – Power Pachyderms #1

You'll notice that there's some tentative scheduling around what is usually the anniversary of the blog itself and subsequently the usual storyline conclusion time. This is because this storyline's conclusion is, well, big. It's going to involve a loooot of editing. There's still plenty I need to film and am already in the process of getting all this done. However, you may have noticed in the past when these storyline conclusions are made, they end up being posted a little late... mainly because I'm still working on them well into the day they're supposed to be posted. They still end up being posted on the right day, but it's a few hours late.

I'm HOPING to avoid that this year with all the prep work I'm doing, but there's no guarantee it's going to work. Now, I don't usually have that much of a complication to getting the storyline conclusion up and running. However, THIS year there's a bit of a complication because of GatoCon, which I will be attending from February 15-17. Normally when I go to a convention, I get the episode done with in advance the week before. However, as you may have noticed, we have the storyline conclusion the week before, which means I'm ALREADY pulling double-duty on an episode AND it's a huge storyline conclusion to boot.

What does that mean? Well, we have two options before us and I would like to hear people's thoughts on it. I have three ideas in case I can't get everything done in advance:

-Instead of a double feature, one part episode up on Monday and the next goes up on Wednesday. No normal episode on February 18th, but I'll try to get the live show up on the 18th to compensate.
-Instead of a double feature, one episode goes up on the 11th and the second goes up on the 18th. The other videos get pushed back a week (with the exception of the April 1st episode, since it'll be the first time that April Fools day falls on a Monday and I already have plans for it).
-Double Feature goes ahead on the 11th, but no regular episode on the 18th. The videos get pushed back as described in the last option.

I want to hear what people would prefer would be the case assuming I can't get everything finished in time.


Lightbringer and Revolution of the Mask Updates
Well, time for updates on the things less people care about, but the ones who do still want to know about them.

When it comes to Lightbringer, it began as a way for me to sate my growing desire to write superhero comics in college. It's been through quite a bit as I've learned how to write and, well, to not bother trying to draw since I'm just not very good at it. However, the long hiatuses have made it clear to me that I'm just not up to the task of writing the comic any longer.

However, I don't want the story to end. Serge is still willing to draw the comic, but he has a workload of other webcomics he does, too, that prevents him from taking over writing duties for the thing. As such, I would prefer to pass Lightbringer onto someone who'd be willing to take over the series and explore the universe of the "World's First Superhero" to their heart's content. This isn't really a contest as much as it is "if you're interested, let me know and I'll consider you" (mostly because I don't have time to hold and run a contest at the moment). I would prefer someone with prior writing experience with webcomics and feel free to link to your previous (or even current) work.

Before you're so quick to volunteer, there are a few things to consider. One is that taking over the comic means a bit more than just writing it. You have to work with an artist, since Serge is carrying over and you have to work with him. Not that he's unpleasant to work with, but rather it'll be a collaborative enterprise. It's not just going to be "do it because I say so." Another thing is that, let's face it, Lightbringer's website is garbage right now. It might be prudent to actually work on fixing up the thing to actually attract readers.

Also, while I'm hoping for seasoned writers, that doesn't mean I'm against new writers, either. If you think you've got the drive and desire to do it, feel free to send in a sample script of an idea you have.

If you do take over the comic, I'll provide you with all the notes I have about the story and the future storyline ideas I had that never made it to fruition, along with passwords and login information for the comic and any other information you think you might need. With story stuff, feel free to abandon everything I had and go with what you'd like - heaven knows a lot of it was written several years ago by a much dumber person.

And this brings us to the other comic project I'm doing - Revolution of the Mask. I'm sure for the people who actually give a damn about it, you're afraid that we're going to see that prediction in the Superman and the Terminator #1 review come to pass - that in 50 years I still haven't finished Issue 3. Well, the good news is that there are only 3 pages left for the issue to be completed. The sad news is that SouZou, who had taken over art duties for the book, has decided that she's probably not the best person to work on it due to her own scheduling conflicts for working on it. She's going to finish the third issue and then pass on art duties to our new artist: Benjamin J Colón!

BJC was the intended cover artist for Revolution of the Mask (and you can see two such covers HERE) and as such is taking over main art duties. He's already started on issue 4 and is getting ahead of the game so we can hopefully get Revolution of the Mask actually released and completed within the next year. I'll be going independent with the series since... well, I have no idea what the hell is going on with Brain Scan right now, but I'll be offering the book digitally and actually produce print versions of it, since there seems to be a high demand for it. How can I do all this while Atop the Fourth Wall is going on and taking up so much of my time? Well, that brings me to my next point...


The Next Storyline in AT4W
A lot of people have said that the Gun and Sorcery storyline has been my longest storyline on the show. That's not exactly true. It only SEEMS to be the longest because for a period of about 3-4 months, EVERY episode had a storyline segment in it. Traditionally I try to avoid that due to problems with burnout and because it doesn't help build anticipation for the next time the storyline will occur. While a growing number of fans have said that they watch the show more for storyline segments, the fact is that the reviews are still the status quo and it makes the storylines less special when they're occurring ALL THE TIME.

I can't maintain that kind of workload and quite frankly I need to give myself some breathing room after this last one, which had me collecting footage from nearly every place I went to and involved other actors, which is not something I've never done to as significant a degree as this one. As such, this next storyline (which I will announce to you all is tentatively named "Ghost of the Machine") is probably going to be closer in structure to the Entity storyline - slow buildup over several months and coming to a head probably around Halloween, since it simultaneously allows me to do the Halloween storyline for this year as well as do a single-episode finale.

Will that mean there won't be a traditional storyline finale in a year with a double feature? Possibly. The Entity storyline fit perfectly for a Halloween finale, as will this one, but I already had an idea of what I wanted to do afterwards with the "His Blue Soul" mini-arc, since I knew that I couldn't justify stretching that arc out beyond what you'd seen. The same can be said with this storyline - there's not really much that can be done to stretch it out beyond what you'll see, though I have plenty of ideas for how it'll work.

However, that also means that it'll probably get a later start, like with the current storyline starting later than I had intended it to. The good news is that I won't be using that spare time to just screw around.


History of Power Rangers
I want to finish History of Power Rangers. I REALLY want to finish History of Power Rangers. And I WILL finish History of Power Rangers. With the storylines out of the way for a time following this one, the main video project that's NOT Atop the Fourth Wall I will be diving into will be History of Power Rangers. I want to get it DONE this year (as done as I can, anyway, since the show is still ongoing), but I want to at least get through Super Samurai. You guys are right - 8-12 months between postings is ridiculous for a series like this, but with how big this storyline has been it's held me back from doing more.

So screw it - I will get this damn series through Super Samurai completed this year and people can shut up about asking me when the next one will be and you can go bother Suede about the next Pokémon movie review (yeah, those are HIS videos - asking ME when they're coming out isn't going to achieve anything).


Atop the Fourth Wall DVD
Not much update here other than I still intend to make it happen. As I've discussed in a previous post, I can't put prior storylines on DVD for a number of copyright reasons. However, I do intend to produce a DVD-exclusive set of episodes, POSSIBLY with their own storyline. As I hope the above paragraphs have explained, storyline stuff takes more time to produce, and when it's something that needs to be tightly written and edited to be SOLD to people, I need inspiration for a storyline that can be done in 3-4 episodes and then film and edit it all.

However, I AM interested in hearing what people would like to see as extras - riffs? A Making-Of video? I will note, thoug, that the problem with a making-of for AT4W is that the process is a lot more boring than you'd think.


Atop the Fourth Wall Website
Another project I want to have accomplished during the storyline break will be a proper website for me and the show. And no, having my own website does not mean I'm breaking away from Channel Awesome or anything like that - it's just a proper website will mean it's easier for me to get new fans to check out my stuff if it's actually focused in a specific place and better organized than simply being a blog that's about 5 or 6 years old by now.

What I want to know from you guys are website design ideas - what are some examples of some of the most functional websites out there?

COROLLARY: I've been getting e-mails and tweets from a lot of people over the last few months that McAfee anti-virus has been having issues with the blog. As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with the blog. I tried contacting McAfee about it, but their customer service is garbage. Simply put, it's most likely a false flag because I use photobucket-embedded images and videos that contain advertisements. Otherwise I do not intend to have any ads on the blog or website that could spread viruses or spyware or the like.


Plushie Cybermats
The plushie cybermats that I brought to MAGFest were a big hit and I sold out of them. I want to make more and as you probably saw in Doug Walker's "The Review Must Go On" video, I've already gotten to work on some more. Free time is what prevents me from doing more, as is the norm around here, but I have several half-completed plushie cybermats and I intend to sell them on Etsy. I'm probably going to NEED to, anyway, since January revenue has been crap (hence why I've been putting out the riff videos as extra content) and that means my check I get in April will be crap, and I ESPECIALLY need money in April for taxes, so expect to see the cybermat plushies showing up on Etsy in a month or two as I figure out shipping prices and the like. I'll probably also bring them to conventions so I have something tangible for fans to purchase aside from comics I've reviewed.

I'll make a more official announcement about them when I have more time. In the meantime, keep buying the Harvey Finevoice Christmas Album even though we're about to hit February!


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