22 index cards

My writing app of choice, Scrivener, lets you create virtual index cards to plot. Here’s a glimpse at some of the 22 I have that currently hold the plot for (probably) issues 16-18 of Spider-Girl. The discipline of describing the plot chunks in such a small space is really handy, I find.

Just wanted to share.

If we were casting…

… this would be my Gwen Stacy. I literally based my description of Betty-as-Gwen on imagery of this lovely woman, so if I had a billion dollars… she’d be on the casting couch. Ahem. Doubt she can act, but hey, she looks the part.

The image is a preview of www.only-secretaries.com, the latest site behind the guys who run OnlyTease.com, which I highly recommend if (in their words) you prefer erotic, not extreme. Well hey, we can’t read all of our erotica, right….

Self-indulgent nostalgic rambling

Can you remember the earliest times you felt – ahem – stirred by the prospect of masks or disguises?

I’m sure we all have a story (unless you just wandered onto this page by accident, in which case, seeya later), and for a lot of us it might involve Mission: Impossible or similar. That’s a common touchstone, but I bet all of us have our own unique memories. If you’re anything like me, those memories haven’t faded too badly over the years, even though your original source may have long disappeared.

One of my earliest ones was of course the primary inspiration behind the Spider-Girl series – a single panel, really, of Betty Brant pulling on her mask. Don’t know why, but that sure as hell got me. I also carried with me, for years, another turn-on from about the same time. I could see the image as clearly as anything in my mind’s eye, and I knew the story it came from. That’d be this image here:

That there is a corner of a front cover to Eagle comic, dated 22nd January 1983. I know this because I have a copy sitting next to me, lent to me by a friend (who, of course, has no idea that I asked to borrow his entire collection of vintage Eagle comics, in part, just so I could find this particular issue). Given that issue’s cover date, I would have been 10 years old when that issue hit the stands.

Well, now I know about when adolescent hormones started for Young GW.

That image drove me crazy, particularly when I read the story inside. Invisible Boy was a series where the kid in question (‘Tim’, who looked quite a bit like how 10-year old Ghostly Writer saw himself) could, erm, turn invisible. So far so dull. But of course while the comic story dealt with ‘interesting’ situations like Tim helping out refugees and stopping crimes, in reality what hormone-plagued boys like me wanted to see was Invisible Boy doing what any normal kid would do… sneak around and see girls naked.

Any normal kid. I wasn’t normal, as we all know by now.

What Young GW wanted to see was girls in disguises. I’d already developed strange feelings after watching Mission: Impossible’s Lynda Day George… and we all know how that Betty Brant crush manifested itself (admittedly, about 17 years later). So when my eyes clapped on that image on the front of that issue, you’d better believe I flipped straight to the Invisible Boy story.

It’s not like it’s Shakespeare, and no, I won’t send you scouring the Internet to find some obscure ‘torrent file so we can all read it. (Although if I had a scanner and not a crappy iSight camera, I’d share.) Basically Tim’s single scientist of a father gets a new housekeeper… and of course as we all know from that spoiler of an image, said housekeeper is actually a gorgeous blonde in disguise. Or as Tim puts it:

“She’s like some Hollywood film star!”

Yeah, emphasis on the word ‘like‘ there, Tim. Still, she was blonde and kinda cute – but more importantly, she had just pulled off a wig and glasses! For Young GW, this meant she was a mistress of disguise, and hence a sex goddess. I would not be argued with, even if we all went back in time and tried.

Over the next three weeks my little adolescent heart went pitter-patter as I picked up each issue, hoping to see ‘Miss Martin’ transform herself for some obscure reason. I didn’t get my wish, although I did get these two panels:

“Tim could imagine it so clearly…”

… and fairly obviously, so could little ol’ me. So much so in fact, that the image above of ‘Miss Martin’ pulling off her wig stuck in my brain for 24 years… and in case you were wondering, here’s where all this becomes relevant to our supposed topic…

… that image has inspired the plot of a potential story called, right now, The Babysitter. I think you can imagine where it might go.

And that, my friends, is what you call a tease.

The final arc…?

I think I just got down, in extremely rough, stream-of-consciousness form, the details of what will probably be the very final arc of Spider-Girl. The idea just popped into my head, and before I knew it, I had the whole thing down.

It has the word ‘death’ in the (provisional) title….

Don’t worry, it’s a really long time away – I’d guess, maybe something beyond issue #40 (50 would be a nice round number to finish on, wouldn’t it? I can dream!).

By the way, I’ve always had a post-series future planned, too. So even the ‘end’ wouldn’t be the end. But if I can do it right… boy, it’ll be one hell of a finale.

A sneak preview of some story arcs

I told myself I’d talk about arcs. Not the curved things. Story arcs. In other words, connected stories within a larger piece of serialised fiction.

As you might be able to tell I’m really getting into the serialised fiction thing with Spider-Girl (or, BBtSSG if you want to go acronym crazy). I just love plotting out long-term, crazy stuff, especially for a character like Betty. It started years ago just after I had my “Eureka!” moment – the one that got me out of the dead-end of Issue #2 (see below for more details). With that block gone, suddenly I wanted to figure out where I could go next.

Before too long I’d sketched out ideas for a whole run on Spider-Girl, from Issue #3 to Issue #21 and beyond. So I thought it’d be fun to give you a sneak preview of what’s coming up in the future, as well as talking about what’s happened so far.

Just so you know, I highly doubt that these arcs will remain in place exactly as is – so far I’ve found that if anything, I underestimate how long they’ll take to tell, and that the characters have a way of derailing the plot. Pretty much spoiler free, but if you don’t want to know anything at all, don’t read on.

The first arc – The Chameleon Strikes – you’ve already read. This took place in the initial first two issues, featuring the Chameleon. In the original run of Amazing Spider-Man, the Chameleon was a one-issue villain (and didn’t even fill the whole issue!), appearing as he did in ASM #1. Naturally, him being a master of disguise meant he figured somewhat prominently in my early planning for Spider-Girl. In fact, while I can’t remember the details, I think the basic idea of Spider-Girl using the Chameleon’s own disguises was pretty much the genesis for the entire series.

The second arc – The Chameleon’s Fate – features The Fantastic Four, and the end of the Chameleon (or is it?), in issues #3 and #4. It also introduces Susan Storm to Betty’s life.

The FF were part of my great plotting revelation, and helped me get out of my own dead end. As the original idea of Spider-Girl was sort of based around Amazing Spider-Man #1, that’s where the impetus came from; I remembered that the other story in ASM #1 featured the FF, and suddenly realised “Hey, instead of killing the Chameleon… why doesn’t Betty just exile him to somewhere she’ll never see him again??”

As I thought it was a stretch to have Peter invent a dimensional portal, in comes Reed Richards. What’s nice is, the opening of Issue #3 is very similar to ASM #1, but the reason Spider-Girl goes to the FF is very different from Spider-Man’s (he tries to get a job!).

Where things seriously diverge from Spider-Man’s universe is when Susan Storm enters the picture. I never really expected that Susan would come to life the way she did. As I wrote about her, I realised her personality was very similar to Betty’s, only inverted. Where Betty craved to be seen and be a glamourous superheroine, Susan sometimes wished for privacy and a life away from the public eye. That led naturally in the writing to the scenes at the end of Issue #3… something I never expected to happen. But I’m very glad it did….

The third arc is actually now complete, too, but I can’t name without spoiling the villain. It runs for four issues, from #5 to #8, although originally I plotted it to be three. Just to tease you on the plot: it’s the debut of a very well known villain from Spider-Man lore, although with a few new twists. A familiar face from an earlier issue makes a return. Spider-Girl commits a crime. And Susan shows up again.

The fourth arc I can give a codename to… ‘Brother‘! This arc was originally going to see the introduction of The Enforcers. This was what I plotted literally years ago, but to be honest I was never 100 percent happy with it. The Enforcers are kind of lame, the plot didn’t really fall right, and it just didn’t ‘pop’.

However, the way the third arc wrapped up gave me a whole new jumping off point, and some more research into early Spider-Man stories gave me a different villain to play with. Someone much more interesting to write. Therefore, out go The Enforcers, in comes… someone else.

This is up next for me to write – I literally finished plotting it this morning, and I really like how it’s turned out. It very neatly parallels two original Spider-Man stories while adding the ‘unique elements’ you’ve come to expect. It’s plotted to be four issues, but it might end up as three.

The fifth arc we’ll codename ‘Crossover’. Unlike the previous arcs, this one is pretty much standalone and can work at any point. It’s almost like a crossover event for Spider-Girl, and while it starts off coming from the existing plotlines, it then goes a whole different way.

I’m really, really looking forward to this. It doesn’t parallel any existing Spider-Man stories, so it’s a blank canvas, plot-wise. It looks like it should start in Issue #13, and I’m glad it’s happening in ‘Year Two’. By this point the characters are established, we know how the universe works (kind of) and you know what to expect. Which is exactly when I need to throw you guys a complete curveball.

This arc started life as a kinky idea that led to a very specific, very vivid fantasy… one that was so vivid I ending up writing it down as prose, with no setup, no ending – just one scene. The idea was so damn delicious that I just called the file ‘Spider-Girl future’ and left sitting on my hard disk.

In that famed mammoth plotting session mentioned above, the one idea expanded into a much larger story, and then into a massive epic. That initial scene will end up in the first issue of a huge arc that currently should run for nine issues (potentially #13 to #21) but I might find it runs shorter, or longer. I am very excited about writing this – it introduces a whole raft of new, but well-known characters – but I have a strong feeling that what I have plotted will not end up being what I write. We’ll see. That’s the fun part.

The sixth arc is all I have plotted up to right now, although I have plenty of ideas for beyond this – some of those ideas suggested by you folk in the past few days!

This arc should take Betty places she’s never been before, emotionally. Plotting this was when I started to realise I could really do anything I want; I could play with the Marvel Universe in interesting ways, and start echoing classic Spidey stories without repeating them. I even pay homage with the title of the arc… but it’s a huge spoiler, so it has to stay secret for now. No idea how many issues this’ll be, but it’ll probably be shorter after the marathon that’ll be before it.

I realise now, typing all this, that I’m really tempting fate here. After all, I wrote two issues of Spider-Girl seven years ago and then never went further than that (although now I’m smart enough to see a dead-end story when I write one). Still, it’s very possible that the spark will die, the bloom will go off the rose, or other similar metaphors… and that I’ll crash and burn before I ever get to the later stages. I guess part of the reason for writing this post is that someone can refer to it later if I slack off.

If I do make it though… if I do… it’ll be really something for me. I’m only just done with Issue #8, and I’m well past 50,000 words. So at the current going rate for issues I’ll be closing in on 200,000 words when I get to the sixth arc. And that’s one big pile of ‘comics’.

Let’s see how we do, eh?

Saturday** afternoon tease… well, kinda

I’m backing up my backups, today. Transferring things to DVD, in fact – boy, I lead an exciting life – and I actually found a couple of things I’d been idly looking for. Wooooo. I also found a few things I’d totally forgotten about, one of which is below. But first, because I like exposition, a little background:

Back in 2000 or so I started MaskFiction.com (No, it’s dead. Yes, feel free to take the domain) and worked for a while on gathering as much mask-related fiction as I could into one place. Eventually it ceased through a lack of interest from most people, and also my feeling that frankly, I was spending a lot of time and energy on it and getting not much back. That’s not really the point though.

During that period ClosetMonster and I (yes, that ClosetMonster) talked a bit about possibly doing an online comic together using Poser. I threw around some ideas with him and unsurprisingly, my ideas then were much the same as my ideas now!

I had an idea (still do) for continuation of the Spider-Woman ‘legacy’ which would put someone else in the suit, involve lots of disguises. CM did the test image you see below; I supplied the text.

While I highly doubt this story will ever see the light of day (unless there’s a hugely talented* Poser artist reading this with a lot of time on their hands; if so, leave a comment) I still think it’s a cool image, and thought it’d be fun to share. Thanks, CM.

Oh, just FYI – Issue #8’s about two-thirds done, I reckon. Easily should be finished this weekend as I’m off for four days (Easter, yay) but as I’m away all day Sunday, expect a probable Monday release of (confusingly) Issue #3, as promised.

Anyone out there want to do a Poser pin-up of Spider-Girl?

* Don’t think I’m kidding here either. The scripts I write, you’d need to be a 3D and Poser whiz. Oh, and add to that I’m a perfectionist. But hey, the results would be great.

** Yeah, it’s a long weekend. Sure felt like Saturday yesterday.

Saturday morning tease

Click to make bigger. In case you’re wondering, that’s the new title for the series. And yes, she’s been inspiring.

(Posted with the utmost respect to the original model, and the site I (ahem) borrowed it from. I have paid them plenty of money over the years, though.)