BBA Possible Reboot, cameos, and more game news

Apr 1, 20108 min read

Deviation Actions

Published: Apr 1, 2010

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BBA News

Hey all! There's been a lot of anxious fans wondering "what's happened to BBA? Did they quit? Is it on hiatus? When's the next page?"
So good news, and bad news. First bad news, I can't promise a new page anytime soon. But the reason for that is related to the good news.
The Blackblood Alliance will be undergoing a reboot! We'll be pulling the story back to before the current conflict and focusing on earlier in the characters lives, compressing the timeline a little and focusing on development. This is in response to criticism we've received in the past about pacing issues, but also a general dissatisfaction with how the story was progressing on our part. So we'll be experimenting with retooling the story structure and characterization to make the whole thing more fun and more character focused than before.

Will this tie directly into the current already printed issue? Will we be scrapping the pages of issue 2 we've already done? So far, I can't say. We just want to focus on these new ideas and, if we feel like it, possibly tie it into what we already have.
But frankly our skills have evolved significantly since issue 1 came out. The characters evolved, the plot evolved, even our knowledge of comic making has evolved. Issue 1 was a kind of a pilot, Issue 2 was where we were trying to perfect our skills. And since starting Issue 2, we've moved ahead further still. So rather than forcing ourselves to stick to a script we've grown beyond, we're opting to move forward by rehauling everything.

How much of everything though? We're not dumping all the plot elements. There was a lot of good ideas there. You'll still see a lot of the same characters and, if you followed us at all, recognize where the plot might be going. But those individual bits will be expanded upon and improved. So don't worry, your favorite characters aren't suddenly disappearing. Just the cast will grow more naturally and there'll be less Bleachism (or "holy crap why is there suddenly 15 new characters I've gotta remember?!!" though I hope we were never THAT bad.)

I've been doing a lot of writing lately reworking the plot, focusing on the first arc, and stitching things together. Kay's and mine's roles will be blending even more now than they were before (our titles, honestly, never really reflected the sum of what we do, both of us have a heavy hand in what the other does).

I'll be posting up some of the concept artwork I've been working on to allow everyone a look into what we're doing. Feedback is welcome, but understand that the whole reason we do this project is for fun. We have fun writing it, drawing it, and putting it together. That you guys get a kick out of it and enjoy the project enough to want a piece of it yourselves makes the project extra special. But The Blackblood Alliance was always a project about doing something you love, something independent from the bustle and shuffle of everyday worklife, and seeing what becomes of it. And that's something we want to take it back to, free of drama, and make it better for everyone (but especially for ourselves). So if you slam whatever concepts I put up, that's fine and you're welcome to your opinion. But really I'm just aiming to draw whatever is the most interesting for the both of us. Because in your adult life, you've gotta treasure those projects that are your creative outlet and not let them go. It's the same for a musician, or for a painter or a writer or a sculptor.

Cameos

Anyone looking for a refund for their cameos must send emails to Kay at kayfedewa@gmail.com . We understand there's people who are frustrated with progress on the comic and were looking to see their character somewhere and haven't yet. You are welcome to contact us about refunds.
If you don't want to

Anyone looking for cameo spots or wanting their character in the comic, it's not going to happen. Please don't ask, you'll either be ignored or responded to with the same statement I just wrote. It's not a diss against you or your character. Disney himself could appear out of no-where and ask us to stick Pongo in the comic and we wouldn't do it. The cast is large enough without adding to it and we really don't want to deal with copyright confusion or completely retooling characters to fit in the comic universe. And even if we were willing to deal with that, honestly we like designing our own characters too much to take other people's.

Game Characters

We're trying a new strategy with the game characters to make animation and marking design easier. Kay's been hard at work learning MAYA at her workplace and has become proficient enough that we think we can test using 2D transparencies of 3D models in the game. This way more markings and animations and characters doesn't become an impossible task. It'll still look like a 2D drawing though, Kay's style and modeling skills are such that the two almost look the same. This just takes a huge load off our back. Expect it to look just as pretty.

Ok, that's all. Back to your normal lives now, bai!

Commissions to finish

Including those not from the queue. If you're curious what's happening to your commission, keep track of it here.