4komatose

I have to apologize to Scott about this latest issue. I had warned him ahead of time that I might have to cut back a little on some of the things he scripted due to constraints on my schedule, but I also said that I would try to keep the changes to visual alterations. Unfortunately, I had to cut back on artwork to a point that the dialogue he wrote wouldn’t make a lot of sense, so I had to rearrange some of that too.

I’ve tried to keep the changes fairly minimal, however — what you readers are missing out on is mainly a much larger number of swimsuit-clad women pawing at Ariake in the first three panels of the issue.

Which brings up an interesting point: this comic, as the copyright infers, is a collaborative project. However, while some scripts are purely collaborative, Scott and I tend to trade off script-writing duties rather that write them together. While I was working on the art for this current issue, I came up with a little test that can help you readers know who wrote the script for a particular issue (or at least who generated the idea). Unfortunately, I don’t have time to share that at the moment, as I need to leave for school in about 45 seconds. I’ll be back later today to post the test idea, though, so make sure to check back with us in about six hours or so.

– Edit: The Test –

This is a test in two parts. Each part consists of five yes/no questions. In this first part, each “yes” answer counts for one point, and each “no” answer counts as zero points.

1. Are there a significant number of female characters in the issue, or are the female characters an obvious focal point?
2. Are the female characters (if present) in the issue wearing tight and/or revealing clothing?
3. Are significant portions of dialogue comprised of euphemisms for gender, body parts, or sexually-oriented activities?
4. Is the story primarily about Ariake’s activities?
5. Is Ariake physically assaulted in the issue or is the issue’s “punchline” primarily a physical event?

For the second portion of the test, each “no” answer will count for one point, while each “yes” answer will be worth zero points.

6. Does the issue contain references (in text or images) to religion, mythology, history, classical poetry, or classical art?
7. Are the female characters (if present) in the issue dressed modestly?
8. Are significant portions of dialogue contained in caption boxes or thought balloons?
9. Is Kyushu present in a majority of the issue’s panels?
10. Is the issue’s “punchline” largely dependent on a line of dialogue?

Add up your results. Generally speaking, a script written by me will rarely score over a 3, while Scott’s scripts will rarely score under a 7. Scripts that score 4, 5 or 6 are most likely an equal collaboration or a script that was written by one of us, but significantly rewritten by the other. It’s not 100% accurate, but does a fair job revealing authorship — give it a try and find out.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 at 10:15 am and is filed under 4komaThoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.