with Killer7 - There are too many characters and factions, but I need to center the story mainly in one perspective. Do you guys think that focusing on the Killer7 itself is a good way to go? If I tell the story through someone whose mind is warped and fucked up, the whole story and it's appearance will be necessarily warped (like the game). This is why I'm thinking of a multiple character approach, and also a "neutral" character approach, which I will need to describe Kun Lan and Harman Smith and Dimitri Nightmare, for example. These people aren't people, they're forces. The game was in development limbo for ages, and had many, many hands upon it, developer-wise, treatment-wise. Even the distorted way that the 'remnant psyches' speak was an augmentation; the recordings originally sounded like horrid, broken english and very poorly mic'd. The developers messed with the audio,made it work for the situation and 'bam'...genius. Something that feels crazy that actually works. There are so many happy accidents in Killer7, it feels mostly like magic, is all. Even the music added to the feel; many incredible projects have similar stories. You know, Harrison Ford was a stage hand on the set of Star Wars. He wasn't auditioning for the part. He knew George Lucas from 'American Graffiti', but that had been a bit role. Magic happens. Sometimes, it has Industrial Light. (Forgive me, I know I just 'dorked'. I'm also going on a tangent, here.) IMO, it really depends on what you would enjoy the most; if you want to focus on all the characters, then that's your right, and your source of power in perspective. You are writing an ensemble piece. You have 'The Usual Suspects' at your disposal, and Kevin Spacey is dapper in white, winning the Oscar for 'Best Supporting'. But you may want to focus on one character; a deep sense of intimacy is formed then, for both author and audience. Patrick Bateman is playing 'Huey Lewis' and laying down the plastic. Both work. You may want to experiment. See which you like best. It is always your bar-b-cue, and you get to serve the guests. They choose the condiments, and the way they want to digest the menu items. You cook it, you plate it, and you look away if people are pummeling with relish and skewing the original concept in a way you don't favor. If the food doesn't agree with the guest, well, okay...too much metaphor, lol. You still did your job. For myself, I go in shifts; my blog is easy - I pick my battles. I can do a chapter where I focus on one character. I can do an entire story arc where my locus is one character. When adding to the whole, it only makes the relationship, the developmental sense deeper. It's that trip to the grocery store you make at 2am for 'Americone Dream' with your honey that you remember more than any holiday. It doesn't mean you don't love puppies and Christmas. You just appreciate the mundane, and the glorious, as well. To do group pieces, I have to have a really good sense of who I'm writing for, and how they play with others; that just comes with development, or time, or both. It's no big thing. It's a whole lot of fun, actually. It's like...'Secrets & Lies'...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_&_Lies a Mike Leigh film from...1996? Yeah. He wrote the screenplay, but let the actors rehearse together, and develop their characters, then improvise dialog. There was no written script. That's how I write. It's an incredible experience, too. At any rate, it's a good movie. Okay, enough out of me.

Yeah, you actually made me understand better the whole process behind the game, and managed to encourage me to go wilder with the project like as if, for example, even the finished game is a prototype. Suda himself said once that there were a lot of aspects in the finished piece he didn't like, but what's done is done so no use in crying over spilt milk. My take here is just another alternate take on the material. Even so... ...I'm just going to do the first episode of the comic like the first episode, Angel, in the game. A multiporpose facility somewhere in the US is under siege by the SWAT, after being publicly declared to be the headquarters of the terrorist organization, Heaven Smile. The SWAT hace created a security perimeter 1.8 miles around the area and aren't allowed to make a move. Officially, the SWAT are the ones handling the operation to capture the Heaven Smile leader. Inside, the vigilante group Red Gunners that were secretly using this facility as their headquarters, are being targeted by all sides both by Government, the people and the Heaven Smiles as being accused of being the Heaven Smile leaders themselves. A SWAT sniper that is controlling the back entrance of the building spots a tall, black man with a large briefcase and a white suit getting ready to enter the building. The SWAT sniper uses infrared vision to have a clear shot at his vitals, when he sees a bright spot inside the man's head that appears to be an eye. The tall black man looks back right into the direction of the sniper rifle scope, and the sniper hesitates and switches between infrared and normal vision several times to make sure he's not hallucinating. Each time he switches to infrared, he sees bright spot right at the center of the man's forehead, shaped like an eye. While the sniper hesitates, GARCIAN SMITH calmly enters the building. And so on... The events at the building won't be the exactly the same as in the game, you know, Dan Smith doesn't need to be the first guy to be introduced after Garcian Smith, and it won't be just the Killer7 running around the building shooting Heaven Smiles with little else to show. Actually, my plan is both to cut down on the time spent getting to a target, and maximize the red gunners' role in the story. Instead of an empty building, the building will have several company offices with people working there, when they were announced to by phone that couldn't leave the building because it was declared a BIOHAZARD site, so the building was quarantined. The reality is that since everyone inside the building is considered to potentially be a Heaven Smile, nobody can get out, and since there's no one inside to do crowd control, panic ensues because everyone's literally scared to death of each other, because they've seen some of their friends and co-workers blow themselves up along with others. There's no virus per se, but simply people who willingly let themselves be turned into smiles with the simple promise of having their depressing lives change into pure bliss and be like gods. So, a battle royale of sorts ensues with everyone killing each other and reverting to cruel beings out of terror, or simply cowardice. Heaven smiles or not. Humanity's true nature comes to the surface, most people, when faced with the prospect of a horrible death will have no problem with murdering their own friends, and Kun Lan laughs (again). The building is really a microcosm of the world. And Kun Lan thought it was good. Really good. The reality inside the building is that there are only 3 Heaven Smiles, and one of them was killed at the entrance. The other two made themselves blow up when most of the workers were at their collective coffee break and at the gym. This was done this way so that most of the people were gathered in one place and, that they could see the process in its entirety. The rest of the victims are just the result of suspicion, especially when faced with the doors closed. 65 dead at the end of the night. 2 of them by Heaven Smiles. There's not gonna be much Killer7/Heaven Smile action in this episode except for the one at the top floor and at the entrance. The rest of the action will consist of folie furieuse amongst the people in the building. This building is a -*test*-('") site for Kun Lan to prove his point about the world. Basically, I'm doing this to resonate a little more with real life events. Usually, retaliation attacks cause a lot more victims than the initial attack. Because in the case of retaliation, there's seldom a clear target. What is clear however is that people are scared they're also very much controllable, as long as you give them the tiniest hope of relief. To start a war is very inexpensive. You can cause a big fire by spending a match and then sell the means to extinguish that fire, which are anything but inexpensive. The episodes "Sunset" and "Smile" are the same thing, but at a global scale. These are the beginning of Kun Lan's actual project. Its success was proven in that building, once more (I can't discard the several other incidents with Heaven Smiles before this, this one, Angel, would be the culmination of a long process, when Harman finally meets the Heaven Smiles' boss personally, and seemingly, ends it all. Kun Lan, fucking surprise). Sunset would be the beginning of Kun Lan's next and actual project. Matsuken will have the Japanese people's vote because they're scared to death and Matsuken will ensure their protection, or so he promises. Fear is a good card to have in your game. In this case, Kun Lan has that card through Matsuken. Alright, you get the drift. I was thinking of that incident in France with the Smith Killers being killed by Emir in one version of the story, and the french maid almost destroying the Second Smith Syndicate in another, but now, I don't think either is incompatible with each other. They may very well be two different stories. One is a cheap hotel, the other, a luxurious resort hotel. One happened in an unspecified point in time as told by Jaco, and the other in 1990 in the timeline. I'm using this gap to fill on my own. okayTHAT'SENOUGH!!!!! The comic is NEXT!!! EDIT: Here are a few more roughs in the meanwhile: This is actually a couple of shots - One of the Celtic building exec desperately begging for someone to help, while Con Smith stops and listens. Kevin looking cool. I think. Mask de Smith in a stupid moment. Dan. Here he's disgusted by the one of the kids at Curtis' mansion, because the kid is sobbing and asking him where's "Papa Curtis", all the while grabbing Dan's pants and slobbering his suit. Dan promptly kicks the kid in the face and announces to all of them that he just killed their fucking "papa". Dan then proceeds to show them Curtis' corpse and the rest of the kids' corpes as well. Dan then tells them he killed them all and if the rest of you dipshits don't get the hell out of the house they're gonna be next. Dan watches them run for their lives while being quite confused himself with what Curtis has done to the kids' minds. The kids still think Curtis was being good to them, even after being abused sexually. What's really bugging Dan is how easily he wasted Curtis, his mentor. The Hellion loves kids. When they're sobbing and bleeding from their noses for touching his suit. Angry Dan? A couple of Garcian Smith roughs. I haven't got his beard figured out by the time I drew this one, but whatever. They don't even need to be exactly like in the game.

Yeah, you actually made me understand better the whole process behind the game, and managed to encourage me to go wilder with the project like as if, for example, even the finished game is a prototype. Suda himself said once that there were a lot of aspects in the finished piece he didn't like, but what's done is done so no use in crying over spilt milk. It's a lot to understand. But, go as wild as you feel like. There's no sense in holding back, if that's what you know in your gut you're supposed to do. I can only dream of the frustration of having a published work I can no longer alter, or edit. But, it goes with becoming an artist, I think. It becomes only a moment in time for you, or only a step in your creative process. It's kind of exciting, actually. I think your entire synopsis sounds incredible; and the fact that you can mix your artistic skills with writing skills is even better. Go nuts...in fact, go insane. You will have luck, and support - your runway is lit. Take off.

A SWAT sniper that is controlling the back entrance of the building spots a tall, black man with a large briefcase and a white suit getting ready to enter the building. The SWAT sniper uses infrared vision to have a clear shot at his vitals, when he sees a bright spot inside the man's head that appears to be an eye. The tall black man looks back right into the direction of the sniper rifle scope, and the sniper hesitates and switches between infrared and normal vision several times to make sure he's not hallucinating. Each time he switches to infrared, he sees bright spot right at the center of the man's forehead, shaped like an eye. While the sniper hesitates, GARCIAN SMITH calmly enters the building. That scenes sounds pimp. The events at the building won't be the exactly the same as in the game, That's good, because I don't want to see the same thing as the game. If that were the case. I doubt that I would have ever consented to host these projects in the first place. I prefer creativity. I want to see original stories, coming from the minds of it's authors. The game's narrative in the angel level was flawed IMO. Kun Lan/Angel is what saved the first level from being complete shit for me. There's no virus per se, but simply people who willingly let themselves be turned into smiles with the simple promise of having their depressing lives change into pure bliss and be like gods. In the original build of Killer 7 there was no virus at all. The Heaven Smile were just regular people touched by the hand of god (Kun Lan) with creepy smiles on their face. (Pretty similar to the suicide victims in Silver Case.) I didn't want to offend anyone with neglecting certain characters, who are obviously in the game/Hand and obviously mean something. I'm not offended at all. I'm just speaking from a purely political perspective. That Love & Linda have more potential to develop. (Both of whom aren't used in Hand in Killer 7 at all. My speculation of Linda stems from the subtle clues that we have from the game.) Hell I use Chris Mills in my digital comic. (Mainly because he has a cartoon form during the alter ego cut scenes. I use some lame ass excuse about some time paradox that re birthed the entire populace from the last century.) I'm just saying that you're story would need to be retooled if we were to hypothetically make it more "political" (Personally I think KS7Ndicate is fine the way it is. The only thing that I would change. Is that I would want to add in more surrealism & WTF Lyncian/Jung moments. Surrealism is what makes Suda 51 games what they are.) The thing about political plots is that they tend to involve countries, governments, corporations more than they do the little people. (Little people= main characters. The main characters are only used to guide you around the story. The real driving force behind political plots are the countries themselves.) You can rarely ever do both. The majority of plots that try to do both. Usually come off half assed when it comes to politics. It's as if the political angle were only thrown in to make it seem like it's deeper than it actually was. A key example is Metal Gear Solid. Sure the game is supposedly political, but the political message is only paper thin. The real meat of the MGS stories are the "emotional" melo drama. (Although I hate melodrama which is why I don't like the stories for mgs games, lol.) K7 is one of the only pure political plots that I've seen in a game. (If you take out all the surrealism, & the psychological mind fuck. All we would have left is a political plot line for control of the yakumo cabinet policy. IRL the New American Century.) The only other purely politcial games that I've seen were probably Suikoden, Deus Ex & Final Fantasy Tactics. Since K7 focuses more on politics. The actual character them selves are nothing more than shells & mysteries. (Likewise the characterization in Suiko,Tactics & Ex is rather lackluster, because the majority of the focus is on the political plot rather than the characters.) IMO I just see politics in a story as "either, or". You can't do both at the same time. When politics gets thrown into a plot, and the political logic is some what skewed. What we usually end up with is pretentious bullshit like the Aeon Flux movie. The episodes "Sunset" and "Smile" are the same thing, but at a global scale. These are the beginning of Kun Lan's actual project. You know what I would like to see. A reenactment of the Bank heist that was described in the Jaco reports. It was an actual level in 2003 Killer 7 trailers. (Hell back then Sundance from Flower, Sun & Rain & Silver Case was actually still in the Killer 7 trailers.

I'm not offended at all. I'm just speaking from a purely political perspective. That Love & Linda have more potential to develop. (Both of whom aren't used in Hand in Killer 7 at all. My speculation of Linda stems from the subtle clues that we have from the game.) Hell I use Chris Mills in my digital comic. I'm relieved that you're not offended, actually. I respect your opinion. Plus, I lack a purely political perspective. I'm learning, though, bit by bit; actually, I watched a History channel doc on VX manufactured by the U.S. and the Soviet Union today that made me want to cry a little, but...baby steps. 'VX' Pronunciation: 'vE-'eks Function: noun: a cholinesterase inhibitor C11H26NO2PS prepared and stockpiled for use in chemical warfare as a nerve gas -cite, Dictionary.com Apparently, enough was made by both governments to wipe out the world...but this happened a while ago, so if I start worrying about it now, I'll just seem obtuse. Right? But besides all that...And, well...firebombing... I'm a very empathic person, writing-wise, so I tend to worry over little things I write. Ironically, that's probably what makes me what I perceive to be a good writer. And absolutely, Linda & Love have more potential, I just have a lot of characters on my plate, so if they don't yank my hair, it may take me a while to get to them; hell...they may be angels you ring bells for. Writing is so f-ing cool. I never know what's going to happen with my characters. I love it every day. You're no slouch, either, btw. Oh, and though I've posted to at-*test*-('") to the same, I truly have a crush on your digital comic. It's stellar. And I'm glad you use Mills; he keeps me sane, sometimes. It's hard to explain, though. I always identify more with the teachers, computers and OS's. Go fig. The thing about political plots is that they tend to involve countries, governments, corporations more than they do the little people. (Little people= main characters. The main characters are only used to guide you around the story. The real driving force behind political plots are the countries themselves.) You can rarely ever do both. You know, you're really right. I hadn't thought about it that way before; of course, I may watch too much '24'. Who knows. I know I want to snipe Jack's daughter. That's about it. Anyhoo... When you're making a political statement, your characters are your political figures, be them state, country or delegate. Actual people as individuals no longer retain relevance because you're acting in the stead of a leader, or a military figure; you can no longer choose to see your actual people (or potential characters) as people. They are a part of your 'body', but they are not totally irreplaceable. There is always going to be a 'Smith' or a 'Jones' that has a mother and a picture of his wife, or partner who can be replaced if he or she gets his or her head blown off. This is war. This is leadership. Unfortunately, I find politics are as blind as justice, they just have a larger, more wield-ready sword. And CSPAN. 24-hour bullshit is hard to refute. A key example is Metal Gear Solid. Sure the game is supposedly political, but the political message is only paper thin. The real meat of the MGS stories are the "emotional" melo drama. (Although I hate melodrama which is why I don't like the stories for mgs games, lol.) Wait...isn't the melodrama what MGS is about? You mean...there are politics involved? Oh god...now I have to reevaluate the series, lol. Raiden's in the new game. That's all I have to say. I don't care if his recently uploaded fight scene in the new trailer is badass. I really don't. I hate that bastard. I can't even explain why. I think Kojima knows we all hate that bastard and his naked cartwheels. But here he is. That game better be boss, is what I'm saying. And I don't even mean 'Big boss'. Okay. Tangent over. ... ...But, seriously. And whatever happened to ZOE? Really?

But, seriously. And whatever happened to ZOE? Really? Ask that again in 2170, the release date of Metal Gear Solid 857 - Revenge of Mecha Liquid Phalanx Patriots for the Playstation 40. "Hideo Kojima, once again due to death threats by fans, was dug out of his grave and ressuscitated using the la-*test*-('") cyber technology to direct the newest installment of MGS" "This will be the last MGS game. I think it's finally time to move on. My wife and kids are waiting for me on the other side. I have to dedicate some of my time to my family" When asked about some other thing besides MGS, like "changing underwear" the master replies: "It's not on my plans right now, but never say never" How about another MGS? "Well, this will be the last one, but I'm already developing MGS 858 - Sons of Raiden's Snake Liquid - but I can't reveal too much right now besides the fact that now fans won't need to do any Raiden/Snake/Vamp yaoi doujinshi anymore. I won't leave anything for the imagination of those sick bastards, heh." But is this the last one or not? Wait-- Sons of Raiden's-- what...? "Thank you" lol, sorry. Couldn't resist. EDIT: First episode is done, as far as layout goes (which is a very rough form of the whole thing). This is 18 pages, and it covers everything that happens up until the Killer7 enter the building. There's no historical/chronologic/political setting so far, just as in the game. I like the idea of the intro happening in the middle of things. So, it's just now that I'm starting the real thing. Kun Lan is very different in this version so he doesn't look like the western stereotype of the Devil (I went with the HIK description of him - the "man with a heavenly smile", which in my mind will have to make him more "appealing" to the eyes overall), and Harman has a cane to move around. Neither appears so far. There's the Celtic building workers, Red Gunners - whose mission is to rid the world of the Heaven Smiles, failing horribly, and the SWAT members, who have nothing to do (one of them has) besides watching themselves being filmed by a reporter of ZaKaTV. Jaco has a small appearance, he's a deranged lunatic among the bystanders that will eventually get aprehended by the SWAT. Of course, he used to be someone completely different, but I'm going there at a later time in a flashback episode. For now, I'd like your impression of him to be that of just another idiot making himself look like a fool in public. The series is divided in 18 page "issues", and also in "Chapters". CH1 - Is what roughly corresponds to Target: Angel CH2 - (the episodes don't necessarily respect chronological order. I think you should be able to tell when an episode is not after the last) An internet chat made possible by a hacker going by the name "PINCOX". The participants have a 13 minute time window to share as much info as they can about the Heaven Smiles. Soon enough, the Killer7 becomes a hot topic in which PINCOX gets really interested. Every kind of info comes into topic, including bogus info about who's calling the shots and a suicidal teenager who wants to become a heaven smile because starting from her father, who is a Federal Agent, no one seems to give a shit about her. This suicidal teenager is also a participant. Truth and lies mixed together are thrown around. The chat is closed after 13 minutes, since the internet was recently closed to the public, although the physical network is still there. CH3 - This is will be Target: Sunset with a few modifications. I'm especially looking forward to the TEA CEREMONY, by Toru Fukushima!! He's not a Tea Master, although he wanted to become one. The current world of politics has no room for pureness of heart much to Fukushima's chagrin. Harman gets to be on a bent knee position. Kenjiro Matsuoka kills the past and jumps over the age. He's the Japanese man with the plan now. Japan's 4 major cities get destroyed. Matsuken becomes the aggressive leader of Japan. CH4 - "Jaco" (he doesn't reveal his name, I'm using the name "Jaco" so you know who I'm reffering to), early retired from the FBI due to emotional troubles caused by a past case, curently working as a private eye, gets a CD-rom from a man with a strange mask in his right hand, Yoon-Hyun. Hyun says the CD contains info about sheep being sold to a prostitution network. Even though Hyun tries his best to speak in code in order not to reveal the true contents of the CD, "Jaco" remains perplexed about why would a man like would Hyun be interested in investigating sheep shipment jacking for a prostitution network. Hyun puts on his mask, and, while giving two fingers to "Jaco", insults him endlessly for his stupidity while straight up telling him that that CD contains information to log in to an FBI computer named "Miss Jacob" which predicts the future based on mathematical calculations, or algorithms... etc This is only part of a basic outline of the series structure - I'm focusing on different characters occasionally.

Actually, screw the Python. Dan's initial revolver is this most likely: http://www.kitsune.addr.com/Firearms/Revolvers/Taurus_M44.htm Taurus Model .44

A gun of a different color
You know, I think you're right. The Taurus is pretty sleek anyway, but if I had to choose a gun to draw to fit Dan's, then that would be it. Nice.

A couple more sketches that went through photo chops: The idea behind the original drawing was that Garcian just found out his master was no longer there. The doubt in his mind is represented by his non formal clothing, a black leather jacket and an open shirt. He was supposed to be standing beside a canal looking at the urban skyline. Instead, I just took a screenshot of the game's full moon shot, added a semi transparent second layer and to that second layer, added a motion blur effect. Garcian has a simple monochrome grain effect. This is Emir Parkreiner, who just recovered all of his memory. Instead of shock, of course he feels satisfied because the 30-something-year memory loss was a part of a bigger plan he voluntarily took part in. He's now realizing that it all went according to plan. The plan in question is not his plan, but he accepted to go with it to further his own intentions (both the plan and Emir's intentions are part of yet another plan, so no one's really into the whole picture). Visually I'm trying to do something akin to Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal" (lit.:"Inhabitant of Infinity").

Those are pretty badass!

Nothing new here, just a Japanese version "poster". This should be glued to Shibuya's 109 building. From right to left: "30 years ago... that promise was the beginning of a countdown." "Killer7, returning to this corrupt world in 2007"

Nice poster
Hey, I'd pin that up on my wall; that's pretty hot. :)

I need to post some of these ads all over the main site. BTW Kitano, If you don't mind I'd like for you to post up a preview summary/hyperbole or what not. Of what the HIK 7 Comic is going to be about. The summary will be posted in this page. http://www.killer7.3dactionplanet.gamespy.com/Killers7ndicate/index.htm (I need to take the K7 SINdrome summary down, because it revealed too much of the plot. You're not supposed to know that K7 SINdrome revolves around a power play of influence between Celestial entities. At least you're not supposed to know that until you meet Toriko Kusabi from FSR . Even then, she only tells you what she knows, & not what's actually going on.)

I don't know what to write under there, honestly, because I'm not very fond of straight plot synopses. However you can take this piece of text as teaser: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kill the Past "-Do you know what it feels like, to breathe charred flesh for days while looking for water you can drink without feeling the metallic taste of blood? The screaming doesn't bother you, because you're deaf from the blast. And when you look at the sky, you only see a white dot on the pitch black sky to let you know it's noon? And this on sunny days, when you're not getting burned by the rain." "-Aren't you a little too young for that kind of experience, Mr. Matsuoka? That speech is very unbecoming of you." "-You misundertood me, Smith. I'm talking about your future." -Harman Smith and Kenjiro Matsuoka, at Toru Fukushima's funeral. In 2010, the Killer7 is the world's only hope for the terror of the suicide killers, the "Heaven Smiles" In 2011, humanity's only hope comes in the form of a serial murderer who can see the truth. Artificiality vs Chaos. Both are lies. Kill them. Kill them both. And now a little Haiku, bitches: Hellion saw the Devil Maple Tree soaked in Blood* Eyes that see the wind Invisible to you The truth is unlocked Burning under this mask The Bloody Heartland isn't a poet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- *KAEDE's name can be read as "Maple Tree". I may write something else in the future, but right now I'm at the verge of the first 18-or-so pages' completion. I've done the rough drafts of these pages and I'm now doing the actual finished piece. EDIT: ARGH! "-Do you know what it feels like, to breathe charred flesh for days while looking for water you can drink without feeling the metallic taste of blood? The screaming doesn't bother you, because you're deaf from the blast. And when you look at the sky, you only see a white dot on the pitch black sky to let you know it's noon? And this on sunny days, when you're not getting burned by the rain." Make that "when you look up". Otherwise it sounds shitty.

The comic is coming along, with a new intro I thought up at the last minute, so, excuse me for the wait, but I think it's worth it. Here's a montage of sketches, which show a couple more characters. I intended to reveal Kun Lan here, since it's the most drastic departure in design from the game, but dropped it from this pic: