Parody War: The Interview#320: Untold Tales of the Parody War: More Total War - Complete |
Generic Interviewer Guy: It’s been a while since we caught up with HH and talked about Untold tales – not since Interview Week years ago in fact – so we’re back now to discuss where things are at the end of the Parody War.
IW: Good evening
GIG: So, the Parody War turned out to be, what, a forty-seven chapter story in the end?
IW: Yes. Or seventy-two if you include the preliminary skirmish around Special Resolution 1066. Seventy-four if you elect to also count the two set-up chapters a while before that. It will be no surprise to most people that I never expected it to go on that long.
GIG: So why do it? What made you want to do a huge sprawling war story?
IW: Well, back in summer of ’05 I felt we were probably reaching the end of the current life of the Parodyverse. Posting and storytelling was down in numbers, though at an all-time-high in terms of quality. The Parodyverse was a mature creation, which made it harder for some new posters and new storylines to come forward but opened up possibilities for directions that wouldn’t work in a continuity with less depth and history.
GIG: So you planned a last story?
IW: I decided I needed to do something different which might be a last story, something that allowed for different kinds of plots and different kinds of interactions. I’d done two hundred and fifty superhero chapters of Untold Tales – with a few forays into horror and SF – but war stories have a different rhythm to them. I felt the Parodyverse needed a shake-up to keep people interested. Untold Tales did, anyhow.
GIG: Was SR 1066 always part of the plan?
IW: I saw it as the opening act, maybe six issues or so to do a different kind of storyline again before I got to the Parody War material.
GIG: But it turned out to be twenty-five issues. And by the time it was done, Marvel has announced its plans to do the similar Civil War.
IW: We got there first. This is one time the Parodyverse Board sensed the zeitgeist before published comics did. We’d already started SR 1066 before Marvel announced its plans. And of course, our storyline went quite differently than theirs. It became apparent to me early in plotting that there wasn’t any way to have any of our cast supporting pro-registration without misrepresenting the characters. That’s why I had to resort to Obedience Brands.
GIG: What’s different between a superhero battle and a war?
IW: There’s overlap, of course, but a war is about whole campaigns. Its about whole cultures clashing, not just a few mega-powered blokes in spandex. It can be a lot more visceral because we’re hooking into powerful emotions and values: home, freedom, sacrifice, tragedy, atrocity, endurance. When I planned out the Parody War I had all those 40s noir war movies in my head and I wanted to push things further than I could get in a simple superhero battle. The Legion’s weeks-long vigil with little sleep and diminished resources when the Parody forces were testing the Celestian barrier is an example. The China campaign is another.
GIG: What are your favourite and least favourite parts of the storyline?
IW: I haven’t been back and read it so I’m a bit fuzzy about it all. I remember being very happy with #300 and 301. I enjoyed the Mythlands stuff although in retrospect it should have been hived off into its own story arc and detached from the Parody War. I’ve really enjoyed some of the excellent tie-ins. I don’t think the Swordrealms/Esperine stuff lived up to its potential. I’m not happy that the story’s dragged on so long in real time. I feel its had a negative effect on the community and people must be heartily sick of it.
GIG: Did you find the massive cast list a problem?
IW: That’s a perennial problem for Untold Tales. I remember complaining in 2000 when I had to cope with upwards of thirty characters! But the nature of the series requires the breadth of cast, so it’s a necessary evil. I know it’s a flaw but it’s the price required for an inclusive shared-continuity shared-universe ongoing series. At least with a war there’s good reason to include people and plenty of fronts to deploy them on so they can all be useful. In some ways a war is the ideal storyline to engage and handle such a massive cast list.
GIG: A while back you listed the plotlines that didn’t make the Parody War cut. Are there any things you really wish you could have included that you didn’t?
IW: Plotwise I’d have loved to do a Colditz story, a Great Escape. Maybe a Bridge Over the River Kwai. Maybe a Casablanca. Characterwise I’d have loved an excuse to do more with Dark Knight, Finny, G-Eyed, Sorceress, spiffy and Yo. but then the series would have dragged on even longer.
GIG: Is this the Resolution War, then? The last battle to end the Parodyverse?
IW: The Parody Master thinks it is. We won’t know for sure until the end of UT#322.
GIG: Is there an #323?
IW: Probably not for a while anyhow. I’d like to write some other things without feeling the burden of a regular series with a vast shared cast. I’ve got a few Parodyverse stories on my hard drive that feature my own characters that I’d like to finish and post. I need to finish that Hooded Hood / Herringcarp tale. I want to get back to Boss Deadeyes. I want to write Tom Black #1. I’d like to finish a novel I started a couple of years back. Maybe I’ll even get back to that Avengers: Underground series.
GIG: Are we ever going to get to read The Da Visionary Code then? That was your suggestion for another Untold Tales arc.
IW: Could be. Not yet. My intention on that though is that it’s not a Legion-focussed storyline. It would probably star whichever poster-characters have active posters at the time, plus two or three supporting cast who are key to the storyline. It would cover the secret history of the Lair Legion, the things they didn’t tell you when you joined up, what happened right back through history with the League of Improbable Gents, the Improbable College, the Knights Improbablar, why Vizh’s tomb is under the Lair Mansion, all kinds of things. But not yet.
GIG: Where do you think the Parodyverse is going to be after the Parody War then?
IW: In continuity or outside it?
GIG: Answer for both.
IW: In continuity I think we need a time of simpler, shorter, cleaner tales. It’s the sweet air after the thunderstorm. It’s the chance to take off the boots and dance on the grass. I expect we’ll have a smaller core Lair Legion – very small for two or three months until their recruitment drive kicks in, maybe six or eight members. I think there’ll be a new growth of a new generation of heroes coming forward.
GIG: And on the PVB?
IW: Hard to say. I think I’ll wait and see who takes the initiative and how. I’d like to be surprised.
GIG: We’re almost finished, but before we sign off have you any hints about how the Parody War might end?
IW: I’m looking forward to finding out myself, since it’s not written yet. But I will say that throughout the War I’ve tried to make each of the massive major battles have a different rhythm, location, and payoff. We’ve already seen the PM and the Legion stand in the middle of a ruined neutral battlefield and slug it out, so we won’t do that again.
GIG: Cast deaths?
IW: No comment. Good night. |
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Post By
Generic Interviewer Guy returns to quiz... the Hooded Hood
Wed Aug 15, 2007 at
04:52:35 pm EDT
In Reply To
The Hooded Hood continues to struggle towards a conclusion
Fri Aug 10, 2007 at
09:52:25 pm EDT
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