All Comments on 'Valiant Valkyrie vs the Boarman 01'

Same guy that troubled you about Heroines/villains reference guide here(still waiting for it by the way). I am confused about Beachport location. It have all sorts of heroines(different races, Texan, Southern etc). Can you briefly describe Beachport's geography and history(for example, by naming Beachport's real world prototype).

I believe the author has added their reference guide in comments to Zoo part 6. And I'd say I'm a vote for not specifying the city's past or geography at all, except as needed by a story. I'm a big fan of fictional cities that could be stand-ins for any number or real-life cities and exist outside the real world, whether that be Metropolis or Gotham from DC comics; or Astro City; or Springfield from The Simpsons. I don't think pre-tying your hands to any specific history or geography is of any particular benefit and could potentially hinder future stories.

Which is another way of saying: Beachport doesn't really exist. It doesn't need to conform to real world geography or demographics in order to be a compelling setting.

@Anonymous: Re: Heroines Reference Guide - yep, I haven’t forgotten about that! I have a draft in progress that is about 90% complete; I will try to get it out sometime during the release of the current Boarman storyline. Hopefully within the next week or two.

Re: Beachport’s location - so, just like I don’t tend to carry over continuity between stories, I don’t really want to give specific geographic coordinates for Beachport either, much like many comic book cities don’t necessarily have fixed real-world locations. The only hard and fast rules are that it is on the coast (obviously), of the continental United States, and that the Fertalian Preserve (itself a fictional location) is nearby. Rebel Belle and Katy Colt being there shouldn’t necessarily be taken as meaning they are in the South and Texas respectively; although I will go ahead and say we will see Rebel Belle’s ah ‘ancestral home’ eventually so yeah they do pretty much have to be in the South. But I don’t want to nail it down to even something as specific as a particular state, since that opens up the possibility of having to deal with specific state laws and statutes and etc; which I am in no way an expert in. It’s an area where a little ambiguity is very helpful all around, I believe. Yes, obviously, I could invoke the ‘it’s a different universe things those things can be different’ excuse, but overall I prefer to use that as little as possible since in the long run it just makes things more confusing.

I will admit, I did rather shoot myself in the foot a bit in this regard by specifying in the current story that it has to be near a state border; but even with the above restrictions there are still seven or so to choose from so pick whichever one you like best and modify the coast as necessary.

As for the history; while there are bits of it that are older (pre-existing towns, Rebel Belle’s aforementioned family estate, etc); for the most part the city itself is relatively new and artificial. It was built as a ‘model city’ during the Cold War, officially for basically propaganda reasons, but in reality as a cover story for an entirely different purpose. I won’t go into details on what that purpose was, it’s potentially fodder for a future story, but suffice to say that a lot of the city’s early start was provided by government-funded housing projects and laboratories and such, around which organic growth eventually took off. That money-tap got shut off a couple decades ago, though, for various reasons, leading to decay and rising crime in certain sections of the city, which is part of why it needs such extensive super-hero coverage. Also, the ‘secret purpose’ leaked out in a number of areas, most notably in the disaster that created the aforementioned Preserve, but also in a lot of smaller ways as well, leading to a lot of supercrime and monster infestations and such as well, which is the other reason it needs such a large super-team. As to why that superteam is entirely women; well there is a reason for that too, but this is already getting pretty long, so I won’t cover it here. I will probably leave it to the guide as discussed above, as the reason basically boils down to ‘Valkyrie wanted it that way’ and it gets covered briefly as part of her personal history.

Hope that helps. If you have further questions feel free to ask - although I won’t promise straight answers, since as discussed above providing a definitive statement on ‘here’s where the city is exactly’ is generally something I’m opposed to doing; but I'll try to clear up any confusion otherwise.

@NoComeupance: Just a quick clarification: what Anon1 is referring to is a ‘Character Reference Guide’ I promised that is basically a set of fact sheets for each heroine: her costume, secret identity, power set, etc. The document in question is actually just my own notes cleaned up for public consumption; and is almost done - there are just a few of these ladies whose entries are still pretty incomplete, and I don’t want to release it with big obvious gaps. I am going try to finish that up in parallel with the Boarman storyline and release it at some point, under a non-fiction category. What is going on in Zoo Part 6 is more me replying to a request to provide the real-world models I think are most similar to the heroines, which is a bit different.

Thank you, but I disagree.

"...many comic book cities don’t necessarily have fixed real-world locations." Major ones definitely have. Gotham and Metropolis located on East Cost, New Jersey/Chesapeake Bay area. That is quite concrete. That allows to imagine cities history, architecture, ethnicity.

"It was built as a ‘model city’ during the Cold War..." Oh, that is a shame. I am a big fan of your "Miss Americana...Thanksgiving story". So, I was hoping to read a story about wives and daughters of Beachport's founding fathers (and their african slave girls) having fun with native studs.

That is just my humble opinion. You are the boss. I will enjoy your stories anyway.

@Anonymous2:

“"...many comic book cities don’t necessarily have fixed real-world locations." Major ones definitely have. Gotham and Metropolis located on East Cost, New Jersey/Chesapeake Bay area. That is quite concrete. That allows to imagine cities history, architecture, ethnicity.”

Sure: there are trade-offs to any choice and advantages to specificity, to be certain. However, this kind of comes back to the sorts of stories I am trying to tell. These are, for the most part, intended to be pretty cartoony stories at their roots - there is no continuity from story to story, in part so that I can freely launch into any crazy idea that comes to mind without having to stop and work out the details too much. To throw out some examples; we don’t need to know exactly where the giant monster came from, only that he’s going to stomp the city so Valkyrie needs to resort to extreme measures to stop it. We don’t need to know how the Professor’s time machine works, only that it does. So in the context of that framework, there are some big advantages of ambiguity, in that it allows me to justify a wider range of setups with a relative minimum of fuss - which translates directly into shorter and more efficient openings, which I tend to value highly.

That said, there is intended to be a certain character to the city; this dovetails a bit with the second comment so I’ll skip to it and then continue from there.

“"It was built as a ‘model city’ during the Cold War..." Oh, that is a shame. I am a big fan of your "Miss Americana...Thanksgiving story". So, I was hoping to read a story about wives and daughters of Beachport's founding fathers (and their african slave girls) having fun with native studs.”

Well, that’s something I absolutely could still do. After all, it’s not like the area the city occupied was just completely vacant prior to that happening; as mentioned there were pre-existing towns (which are often districts or enclaves now). There is a draft story in final rework now that shows us Rebel Belle’s ‘ancestral mansion’ which, while I don’t think I come out and say it, has features that if you are at all familiar with them is basically intended to scream ‘this is a former plantation house’ at you - so that story is theoretically possible.

That said, there is an intended character for the city that does in fact come from its newness. In effect, it is intended to be a city of huge centrally-planned projects, which are often now in a state of some decay but still retain an element of monumental grandeur, with more organic growth surrounding them. A lot of big government labs built to study that secret thing I alluded to, which are now past their prime or even partially shut down, but from which a lot of dangerous stuff still tends to escape. The setup for the city is first and foremost there to justify a whole lot of super-shenanigans being possible, but it does point to a certain character as well. But, this gets back to not just my approach to storytelling but also to worldbuilding; in general, while I intend all this stuff, my preferred practice for actually writing stories is to basically use an iceberg principle, where it all exists in theory, but it only makes it ‘onto the page’ when relevant. So that aspect of the city’s character will be something that only gets touched on as stories come out that need to touch on it, basically.

This loops back around to the original topic. There may come a point where it behooves me, for purposes of a certain story, to lay down a specific location for the city. But, if and when that happens, I would rather it be something that comes organically out of that story, not something I would want to define ahead of time; precisely because it both opens and closes so many avenues simultaneously.

That also kind of relates to why the Character Guide is taking a bit of time. Since it's basically based on my notes there is a whole lot of background detail on the various heroines in there, much of which hasn’t actually made it onto the page yet. So, I want to be very certain that I am willing to commit to it all, before I ship it out there and make it ‘official’. It’s a slightly larger undertaking than I realized when I first agreed to it; which doesn’t mean I won’t finish it, just offering some explanation of where I am with it.

Thanks. I dare to bother you a little bit more.

1) Since you have mentioned that you wish to make heroines look less pornographic, I thought making environment less cartoonish is a natural step. But I understand your approach, do as you wish.

2) "Well, that’s something I absolutely could still do(Thanksgiving story)" Oh, PLEASE DO IT! PLEASE DO IT! PLEASE DO IT! There is a plenty of time before Thanksgiving, so your schedule will non suffer. Raceplay story about native bulls "feasting" on outlanders wives bodies will be as hot as fire bomb!

3) "It’s a slightly larger undertaking than I realized when I first agreed to it" Thank you very much for taking that extra work. I believe it will pay off.

@Anonymous3:

“Thanks. I dare to bother you a little bit more.”

No need to dare - It’s always useful to get feedback, even if I may feel compelled to push back against it sometimes. Honestly, for some of the issues you raised I go back and forth myself on where to draw the line, and it can be very helpful to talk it through; I wouldn't reply at such length if I didn't think it was a discussion worth having.

“1) Since you have mentioned that you wish to make heroines look less pornographic, I thought making environment less cartoonish is a natural step. But I understand your approach, do as you wish.”

Sure. But speaking of, that's another of those lines I go back and forth on a bit. I do have that wish, but it’s probably never going to be my first priority, and I may therefore make decisions going forward that push in the opposite direction as well. Still, your point about the environment they’re in being one way to do that is fair, and I’ll keep it in mind.

2) "Well, that’s something I absolutely could still do(Thanksgiving story)" Oh, PLEASE DO IT! PLEASE DO IT! PLEASE DO IT! There is a plenty of time before Thanksgiving, so your schedule will non suffer. Raceplay story about native bulls "feasting" on outlanders wives bodies will be as hot as fire bomb!

Sure, I will consider it! But even though there is a lot of time left I can't promise this year. My writing process is very chaotic, I tend to bounce between numerous projects at once, and it's rare for one story to sail through quickly. And there’s already a lot of other stuff I plan on working on, even discounting the current storyline.

3) "It’s a slightly larger undertaking than I realized when I first agreed to it" Thank you very much for taking that extra work. I believe it will pay off.

So do I. Thank you for the affirmation!