The Answer Post (Mar/Apr 2020)

Welcome to the second Answer post, for the months of March and April 2020. We’ve got 11 questions this time, which feels like a more sustainable number than the 30+ from last time.

Before I start, I wanted to say something about how I pick the questions. There were a number of questions (this time and last) that took the form of, “Is there any one [situation] that you [felt a certain way about]?” And most of the time, the answer was simply, “Not really,” or, “Maybe, but I don’t remember anymore.” I didn’t want to include those questions just to answer like that, though. So I skipped them. It may transpire that I later recall something that fits the criteria, so I’ll keep checking back on those questions for each one of these going forward. 

If you missed February’s Answers, you can find them here.

1.) Winters King: What was the giant shadowy sea monster that scared off the giant crab during the underwater section in the bonus pages of dont split the party?

Rich: It was the ancient black dragon mother who later attacked Vaarsuvius. I think because everyone read those bonus strips long after the resolution of the black dragon story, there’s been an expectation from some readers that I was introducing something new in that scene. But the thing is, I wrote that sequence while the story was in progress and then cut it. So it was intended as foreshadowing for events that hadn’t happened yet at that time.

2.) Skelechicken: Outside of fantasy, which is clearly a genre you have a lot of experience and input on, are there other genres of fiction you have considered exploring? Have you ever considered writing something in the realm of sci-fi or horror? 

Rich: I have definitely considered science fiction, yes. In fact, that folder I mentioned last time with ideas I’ve had for future projects is filled with sci-fi ideas of varying stripes, so the likelihood of me dipping my toes in that pool someday are very high. 

I have zero interest in horror, however. I don’t read it or watch it, and would never write it. I just don’t enjoy excessively dwelling on the associated emotions (fear, repulsion, hopelessness, etc.), even in the context of fiction. Which is not to say I don’t enjoy some of the monsters that come from horror—I used vampires for a whole plotline, after all. I guess if you broadly defined horror to include stories that use tradtional horror creations, then I suppose maybe, but it wouldn’t be anything resembling an actual Horror Story. It’d probably be filled with hope and triumph of the human spirit and all that garbage.

3.) Fernando: What's the deal with the Greenhilt sword? I mean, was it magic when the adventure starts? I'd venture that yes, since Roy's grandpa, being a high level warrior, probably wouldn't have gone so far with a normal sword. But then, it was broken by the spell Shatter, which can't break magic objects. But, then again, it is possible you brewed a houserule, so I don't know. Then it got improved by the starmetal sidequest, ok, but this legacy stuff: since when is that a thing? Was it within the whole time or was it something (or even the colective of things) Roy did?

Rich: I didn’t consult the rules for the Shatter spell when drawing that strip, I just remembered that it existed and decided it would be a good way to have Xykon break the sword. I could have taken five minutes to look the spell up, but I didn’t. Or maybe I did, and decided not to care. Who can say? It was 16 years ago. What’s important is that it is completely plausible that someone established to be a powerful sorcerer would have a spell that can break a sword; the name of that spell and how it works doesn’t matter from any kind of narrative point of view. If it makes you feel better to imagine Xykon silently adding “Greater” or “Improved” before the word Shatter, go right ahead.

As far as the legacy stuff, it’s a thing now. Roy has a deep personal investment in his sword and what it represents, and that investment has now created magical side effects. These powers did not exist until recently; he added them by feeling at his sword super hard. There’s a whole rulebook about this concept, but you hopefully won’t be surprised to learn that I didn’t read it before adding the idea to the comic. I simply wanted a way for Roy’s utility to increase without having to give him ancillary magic items, and I thought this would be something I could tie into his emotional development.

4.) HarryLime: After Daiymo Kubota met his elfen end, was his House absorbed by the rest of the Azurite nobles, or did they find an heir that was more loyal to Lord Hinjo?

Rich: He didn’t have any remaining heirs and any land he once controlled is now crawling with hobgoblins, so I’d say the house was probably disbanded and his remaining assets seized by Hinjo to be used setting up the town seen in the first story of Good Deeds Gone Unpunished.

5.) Rob Snyder: Do you have anyone who you go over the story with, or show your comic to before posting to get feedback on plot development, characters staying in character, or even basic proofreading? 

Rich: Yes, my wife. She reads every comic before it goes up, and I often talk over plotlines with her as a way of working through ideas out loud. She is in fact going to read this and be worried that me telling you this will result in people ascribing any future typos to her, so I want to be very clear that she is in fact quite good at catching typos and the only reason any get through is that I produce a number of such magnitude that it would require scientific notation to properly capture. (UPDATE: She laughed and admitted that she was thinking that exact thing while reading over the first two sentences of this answer.)

6.) Adam Beece: Is there an official tune I can sing, sing, sing, Elan's songs too?

Rich: I think of it as being similar to Row, Row, Row Your Boat, except with four rows and an extra repeat at the end, like: Row, row, row, row your boat, your boat-boat. And if that last part of the song is too long, you just try to cram it all in on a single note for as long as your breath can hold out.

7.) S C: I assume the reason Malack's "snakey" lower half was kept a secret to the reader was for the sake of the battle with Durkon, but is there an in-universe reason why he would hide it? Or was it not even meant to be a secret?

Rich: It wasn’t really intended to be a secret. I honestly thought it was fairly obvious from the beginning by the way he moved. The thing is, there is a slightly different type of “snake person” in D&D that’s one of those monsters that has been trademarked, so it was better to gloss over that detail in dialogue.

8.) Not Fenimore: How are you doing with the whole COVID thing? I hope you're well and keeping safe and healthy. The same goes for all the other OOTS fans too. 

Rich: I’m OK right now. The lockdown aspect is probably less noticeable for us than for most people because the two of us already both work at home everyday. So there hasn’t been a very large adjustment in our day-to-day activities. We have to pay more attention to our food supplies than normal so we don’t need to go out, and I miss being able to put a baseball game on in the background while I draw. If I don’t read the news (or literally anything else online), it’s almost possible to pretend everything is the same as always.

I am more grateful than ever that I have a job where I can’t be fired or laid off. Obviously the issue of a broader economic downturn and how it affects the website and how I pay for it is in the back of my mind (OK, the front), but I’ll figure that out as we go. Certainly I’m very glad I launched this Patreon right before all of this hit, because that takes some of the burden off of the physical book sales, which have dropped off a cliff already.

Also, this probably goes without saying, but: A number of people have told me they needed to cancel their pledge here due to a sudden change in their financial situation, and obviously I understand that. Make sure to take care of yourself and your family first.

9.) Dylan Roy: "Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales" has been out of stock at Ookoodook for a while now, any ETA on the pdf version?

Rich: Probably in May.

10.) Nick: What drove you to make Blackwing a deeper and more relevant character as the comic went on? Was that growth planned ahead of time? If not, did that change lead to a different philosophy or larger role for other animals (ie Mr. Scruffy, Bloodfeast) in the Order? 

Rich: It was a combination of two things. First, after putting Vaarsuvius through all the trouble with the fiends and the black dragons, I knew I was going to have them keep that a secret from Roy and the others. But I also needed a character for them to talk to about it because most of the story takes place through dialogue. Blackwing provided someone who would already know everything that had happened and could serve as V’s confidant in those matters. And second, I felt like the moment when Blackwing popped into existence to carry Xykon’s phylactery was the pinnacle of that particular running joke. I wasn’t going to find a better way to deploy the “forgetting about your familiar” gag than that, so I decided that I would simply retire it and let Blackwing be a constant companion. That he turned out to be such a great vessel for comedy was an unexpected bonus.

As far as influencing the other animals, you have it backwards: Mr. Scruffy came first. I had his role planned out before Shojo was even killed.

11.) Sothe Dain: How did you get the idea to have Greyview be the way he is? The grimdark outlook Russian accent just slays me and he's endlessly quotable. 

Rich: The main idea was to give the Monster in the Darkness a counterpoint to everything O-Chul told him, to show that he had internalized the lessons and wasn’t going to backslide. So where O-Chul told him to think for himself and question what he had been told, Greyview needed to tell him to stop thinking so much and accept what he had been given. O-Chul taught him to try harder, so Greyview said he should just give up. Once I knew that was the basic jist of the character’s worldview, the surface details just sort of fell into place.

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And that’s it for this time. I’ll have a new question post sometime after the start of May. Thanks everyone, and stay safe.