Annotated 18-25
Phil seriously reworked the ending from my original, adding a page to it (making this our largest chapter so far at 27 pages). He also left this note in the comments on the script: “I found the brevity of this ending downright INSULTING to my intelligence and taste. I am sick and tired of you sacrificing good storytelling for your WARPED idea of pacing and page limits. THIS IS THE CLIMAX. IT HAS TO TAKE TIME. YOU DON’T RESOLVE THIS IN TWO PAGES.”
Even though the page-count debate was the topic of multiple rants from Phil as we wrote and edited this script, I don’t think it was the issue that prompted their tone. He was dealing with abiding anger and frustration inside and outside of Guilded Age. A lot of people he’d befriended were proving unreliable on a lot of fronts, and given my issues with lateness I mentioned earlier, I was one of them. My feelings of inadequacy, especially as a businessman, made me more withdrawn, which made Phil feel he had to yell to get my attention.
(Not too hard to find parallels. Phil was disappointed by the world and most people in it like Syr’Nj is here, spouting off in ways he’d regret shortly thereafter. Phil was trying to reach a seemingly unresponsive partner like Byron is here, and thankfully never quite giving up on that partner no matter how hopeless communication seemed at times.)
But his manner of yelling certainly didn’t make me feel more adequate, and so the cycle continued. It was an interrupted cycle; often we still worked together smoothly or even warmly. When things got difficult, our love for the characters and the world we’d created carried us through a lot. But it was going to get worse before it got better.
Sorry to hear about these creative difficulties, even as your output continued to grow in quality.
At the same time, as a reader I’m almost entirely on Phil’s side here. You wanted to cut pages here for some kind of arbitrary chapter length idea? You could have done a 50-page chapter and I doubt a webcomic reader like me would even notice.
This is painful to read but fascinating, none the less. Really surprising how the story never suffered even as its creators were having some difficulties. I hope that at the end of it all you two managed to stay friends even if another collaboration may not happen again.
Yeah, I think we managed, but yeah, I’d be very surprised if Guilded Age wasn’t the last major thing we did together. We’re chasing very different creative paths now, both from GA and from each other.
Looking back on it now, do you agree with Phil about the length of the climax, or do you still think it should have been shorter?
I’ll give more detail on this tomorrow, but it’s the first one.
With that attitude no wonder Graiya is losing followers to Tectonicus.
Actually really like this part of the story as I was really tired of the ‘wood elves are always right’ cliche in the fantasy genre. Even anti- industry Tolkien wasn’t as one sided as allot of the more ‘hug a tree or die’ writers. There is balance to everything and it was refreshing to see that reflected in this comic.
Oh right, and “Skywalker will bring balance to the force”.
Our love for industry is already forcing a major die-off, and it’s unclear whether we will survive it.
So in that respect, the “balance to everything” may in fact mean “no industry whatsoever”.
I just don’t dig the image of Wood Elves being the perfect beings in do many stories, everyone has flaws. You can acknowledge flaws with man and others
Well, they’re almost always portrayed as bigoted, xenophobix scumbags, so I don’t know about “perfect”.
Their views are also often the kind of privileged bullshit we see from Techbros in our own reality, “solutions” that would work only for a tiny minority of very well-off people.
Like, space travel or electrical cars or other such worthless nonsense.
I do the exact same thing when I’m feeling inadequate, almost to the point of just stopping life entirely. It’s this self-perpetuating cycle I still haven’t figured out how to shake off consistently.
My wife calls it “ostriching up”
You’ve alluded to the difficulties that the two of you went through several times, and it’s astonishing to me that it wasn’t until I started reading this annotated review that I had any inkling of their existence. I have to say that learning about them now, and not during the original run is a credit to the both of you. My respect for you grows with each (no doubt painful) recollection shared. Thank you from a long-time fan for this opportunity to see inside the bubble, since I know how difficult self reflection can be at times.
Also, the “two halves” symmetry of getting feedback from Phil the first go through and you this time around is quite pleasing.
So I guess, this is just a long winded way to say thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do.
Cheers,
Côté