The Game

WINNER TAKES ALL…

The devastating war between the Senate and Padakan House is over. Under Frank Tomhines’ new government, power will at last be returned to the citizens of the galaxy. But not everyone is prepared to accept such a system…

It’s all part of the Game… and this game is played hard. The stakes are high, the participants ruthless. Winner takes all.

(Set three months after the events of The Lesser Evil.)

The Game began in late 2005. I had just finished reading my first comic (Fray by Joss Whedon) and thought that I might like to have a crack at creating one of my own. At that stage, I had no idea just how much work it would be, though it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

So, I had the inspiration; now, all I needed was a story.

Ever since I was thirteen, I have been working on a trilogy of science fiction novels. There was a six year gap between the stories of the first and second instalments, and I realised that this gap was an amazing opportunity to: a) develop my characters further and better than I ever had before; b) to explore the myriad of implied events that bridged the novels, and introduce some surprises along the way; and c) to learn how to create comics.

(Rest assured though, The Game does not require, demand, or even recommend any knowledge of the novels!)

The ultimate goal was to use this project as a stepping stone to my first real graphic novel project. It was merely a playground where I could cut my teeth and skin my knees before tackling a serious project of my own.

I didn’t write a script in advance; I just began storyboarding, adding dialogue, characters, panels as I saw fit. Looking back, I can see quite clearly that this was a great way to get committed to the project, despite what I might feel today about the quality of the work.

I was having trouble designing some aspects of the comic, even in the storyboard stage, and I would frequently draw stick figures in lieu of characters, and blobs in lieu of technology or background. In January 2006, a friend of mine from the Serenity Oz forum, Than Vanuyen (known as Chocolate) offered me access to a design that he had produced for work purposes. Thus, the Hawk took concrete form in my work, and drew me ever closer to The Game.

Only six weeks later, Than tragically passed away from lung cancer. Even though I knew that The Game could be the best tribute I could offer to his memory, it was too painful to work on, and the partially-storyboarded work was put on my shelf for nearly six months.

In Semester Two, 2006, one of the courses I took to finish off my Creative Writing Degree was an open-ended Creative Project. I revived The Game, and took in what I had created so far to my supervisor, Matthew Marshall. It took him almost no time to recognise my influences: Dune meets Star Wars meets Firefly. It was too derivative. It took the better part of the semester to completely retool what I had written, and for the first time, I put together a proper script, and planned out the entire story, adding several new characters and plots. Basically, the work I did in those six months created a story that said something that I wanted to say, and became truly a work of my creation.

In this semester, I also began to read more comics. I expanded my reading to include Will Eisner, Scott McCloud, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, and more. I learned so much about comics in these few months.

At the end of the semester, I handed in an 8 page ashcan, which became the prologue for The Game, and which is practically unchanged here.

After that semester, I finished off the script. The word document clocked in at almost 400 pages. After seeing how long it had taken to create just 8 pages, actually making the comic looked way too daunting. Back onto the shelf it went, for almost another six months.

On and off, I began tinkering with re-storyboarding, and finally began to take it seriously in late 2007, after completing my Honours year, and applying what I had learned while creating Academaesthetics: How the Essay and Comic Can Save Each Other.

This draft of The Game was completed in 2009; however, I have decided not to make it available in that state, as the art is crude and derived from copyrighted images obtained from the internet. I intend to completely redo all the artwork in The Game.

Now I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this.

But we tried everything else… and we have no choice.

We are the final arbiter of justice, and we cannot allow Padakan House to get away with the atrocities visited upon the innocents of Messar.

My friends… it is time for us to strike a blow for democracy, and for freedom.

The Confederacy is now at war.