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Shock Proposal

Started by Mr C, 23 September, 2003, 08:30:14 PM

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Mr C

And at the end, they come to the last garden on Earth...

Rio De Fideldo

I hope you were being facetious as I'm sure I've read the Adam & Eve story line at least three times already.

Mr C

Yeah, it's been done before. It's in some religious book or something I think ;)

Wils

... only it's not actually the last garden on Earth. It is, in fact, a virtual reality prison!

Mr C

Created by the machines that destroyed mankind!
Hey, that sounds pretty good! wonder if I can get some Kung-Fu into it somehow...

Quirkafleeg

Tsk, stone tablets, bible... its a copy of Tooth they need to find!

Art

Genius! The thrillpower will power their home planet for generations to come!

Dudley

When I was much younger, I sat down to write what I thought was a genius idea (*I*was*YOUNG*) for a Future Shock.  It involved an alien armada getting ready to destroy this planet that many had attempted to conquer but none had ever succeeded.  Pull away and, surprise surprise, it's Earth.  Various jiggery-pokery ensues about how the other races had tried to bring down the planet, and how these guys are doing something new.  Anyway, as the fleet goes into a screaming dive, they become aware of a strange dimensional effect, which appears to be doing strange things to them.  The upshot of the whole story is that the planet's defence is that all aliens end up trapped between the pages of comic books - including the one you've just read.  This was utter turd, one of the worst things I've ever written, which was disappointing given the huge amount of effort I put into writing and rewriting.

Anyway, one thing I realised was how amazingly difficult it is to be self-referential within the comics medium (I don't mean the characters self-referencing, or sly undercutting of "realism", or any other po-mo tricks, I mean actually coming out and saying "All this world's a comic, and we merely 2-D constructs").

There's a really quite bad early Judge Dredd where he impounds a job lot of illegal 2000ad's that makes this point better than i ever could.

So, question: can anybody think of a strip that DID manage this trick without disappearing up its own arse or getting too far-out & hippyish?

Art

"The Day The Earth Stood Fairly Still"

We start with an ad for "Personality Amplifiers", the new wonder device that will make you more popular by amplifying your personality. A before and after picture shows how a Peronality Amplifier makes a miserable nobody into the darling of his office.

One of there customers wants his money back as the Amplifier is having no effect. After a quick scan with some special equipment they deduce that he has almost no personality, and so modify the personality amplifier to bemuch much stronger to bring out what little personality he has...

The amplifier gets turned up so far that it starts emmitting his blandness, turning everyone and everything around him. Britain is shown caught in the wave of blandfication, ending on Tharg, in his Nerve Centere, deciding to cancel Future Shocks and replace them with a series of 'Future Prosaics'.

End on a large blank panel with the words "The Twist Ending To This Strip Has Been Cancelled".

Dudley

Hahahahaha!!!!!!  This MUST be commissioned immediately!

I can just see it - use loads of different artists with contrasting styles like that old Armoured Gideon episode...

Mr C

That's great! Perhaps have Tharg panic at the sight of his Thrill-o-meter dwindling away to nothing before he too becomes infected by blandness!

Smiley

There's a really quite bad early Judge Dredd where he impounds a job lot of illegal 2000ad's that makes this point better than i ever could.

So, question: can anybody think of a strip that DID manage this trick without disappearing up its own arse or getting too far-out & hippyish?


A couple of jokey old Shocks spring to mind. The Lanulos Run, where the crew of a spaceship overcome space pirates, black holes, etc to deliver vital cargo to a dying planet (punchline - it's boxes of progs for thrill-starved natives), and the much funnier Hot Item, where energy is at a premium due to the universe winding down through heat-death. Two guys slowly steer a steam car through the snow carrying a vital energy source to their freezing village, and are chased for hours over a few yards by heat-jackers who can't be bothered to crawl after them (punchline - yep, it's boxes of progs).

Oddboy

Also Alan Moore's Tom Strong comics do this a lot.
Better set your phaser to stun.

Dudley

Never heard of it!
It sounded good!
I looked it up!
Here it is!

Link: http://www.popmatters.com/comics/tom-strong.html" target="_blank">Tom Strong review


Oddboy

It's a good comic is Tom Strong, but bewary getting into it - it's done in a kinda ye olde superhero style but it's been Mooreified.
Better set your phaser to stun.