Tales of the Odd: Bouillabaisse, strips 16 & 17
So you’ve probably noticed the sort of gradual petering out of humorous (or even attempted humorous) dialogue in the last few strips. This is because I never actually finished the script for this story. The first portion was an edited version of something I wrote back in 2003, and the rest was drawn based on the rather sketchy notes I had for the direction of the second half.
Here’s the thing, though: this story was all based on workplace conflicts I was experiencing over five years ago. Those issues have long been resolved, and it’s not terribly easy for me to put myself back into that mentality long enough to wrap things up entertainingly. I tried for a little while to attempt dialoguing what I had, but my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. In retrospect, I should have written it all down while I was still feeling it.
The bottom line is, I haven’t lived in Tales of the Odd’s headspace in years. I’m going to continue posting the art for this final storyline, since it’s already done… but rather than trying (and failing) to write amusing dialogue to go with it, I’ll just tell you what was supposed to be happening there. Then, after I post the last one, we can forget any of it ever happened. Deal? Deal.
Click to see full-sized.
So, strip 16. The aftermath of my “Penny’s superhero team dies on their first mission” bombshell. (I was pretty proud of that development when I outlined it, but I don’t think I implemented it as well as I might have.) There’s an emergency council meeting, in which the Director tries to take advantage of the situation and seize power. The Administrator reasserts his position that Penny is actually in charge of superhero recruiting, and agrees to allow her the opportunity to try again. So she heads off to Professor Baldi’s School for the Uselessly Mutated, which was meant to be a parody of… the obvious, and a sly nod to the Bendis board. I’ll let you figure out who you think is who here, if you even know any of these people. The strip ends with Penny realizing just how uselessly mutated these kids are, and flying off in disgust.
Click to see full-sized.
Strip 17: Man, I really wanted to do a sequel to Brain Hotel. I put together a pretty detailed outline not long after we finished the game, and stuck it on the back burner in hopes of getting to it someday. Then, when it looked like it probably wouldn’t happen (there just isn’t enough time), I took my notes and incorporated them into this last Tales of the Odd story. Then the poor thing got pared down further and further as I attempted to focus the story on the primary storylines, and before I knew it, it was gone. I did have a hole in Bouillabaise for an unspecified action sequence though, so I tried to at least throw in some indication that yes, Robot 6 and the Botsmith live in the same world as Penny. This strip was meant to feature the Botsmith attempting to take revenge on his creation, and also to show Penny’s mounting frustration with a city rampant with crime. I think it came out pretty well, visually speaking… but it’s nothing like what I wanted. (That pitch involved, among other things, the Botsmith and Judge Mental teaming up against Ed Arnold and Robot 6. A running joke would have involved Judge Mental’s mind being put into a super-powerful robot body, but still focusing almost entirely on his irritating levitation abilities and ignoring his vast arsenal of weapons. It woulda been hilarious. Trust me.)