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18 Jan 2013 is a memorable day on which my début work All Hail Empress Her Majesty came to a temporary stop. As expected I saw a lot of comments varying from compliments to criticisms. It’s all within my expectation.
I gained a lot form All Hail, e.g. understanding of comics, the first payment for publishing things ever in my life…etc. You all know it already so I don’t need to say more.
Now I’ll talk about why I am ending it.
1.The stock of this genre has run out.
Actually it is clear to everybody that it is not an ending but a pause. For me I need a pause when I am too tired to draw anything. The physical exhaustion is not a big deal, but the mental tiredness is the main problem. During my composition, I have to hurry up an update by reusing the old techniques again and again, which bored both the readers and the author.
Starting from Ch.3 the plot development went on a way of no return called ‘realism’, which can often be found in the comments (T/N: on official Chinese website). I had a wide variety of source materials in my head so I could use them without difficulties, which for a certain period of time became the selling point of the comic. However, the story got boring if the same plot got repeated over and over again. It may be due to the probably limited angle of my storytelling. I tried to use some tricks to cover the fact that I was using the same source material that had been used several times to create some differences for the readers, but in the eyes of the author, it felt like chewing food debris without any nutrition which is technically edible but tastes like shit. (At least I think so)
Now, I have no stock to rely on, so it’s time to end.
2.Plot went out of control.
All Hail started as a comedy with occasionally serious realistic plots. It is a good way to which I should have stuck, but I got confused by some things and began drawing serious content for the sake of being serious, and now I look like a whiner (T/N: 怨妇, literally scorned woman). Looking back, I dropped some interesting plot because I was afraid of ruining the ‘serious’ look and it is too late to bring them back.
Remember the special moves Hua made from time to time in the early chapters? There were even names affiliated like ‘Double Vortex Kill’ or ‘Double Star Break’. I was more into the mood of having fun while in the meantime not making the serious parts looking awkward. But since I don’t know exactly when (class relocation probably) panels like those became fewer and fewer, replaced by continuous failure, suffering, misfortune and helplessness. Although there are some inspiring plot, but they got shot down almost immediately. Continuous failures are vexing to read and even more vexing to draw.
Ying’s ‘Curve Cannon’ is a salute I paid to my old self, which I have lost and want to find back. However some reader commented ‘It looks out of the blue’. Indeed, because the soil for that has gone. However it would feel perfectly normal if it was in the first 10-plus chapters. The change in this comic is indeed significant.
Many readers feel it is not as ‘exciting’ as before, it is because you have already seen similar developments in earlier chapters and find them again in the later updates. Although they look different on the surface but it’s perfectly predictable, so the reading experience goes down. I have also locked myself in the cage named ‘reality’, and it has been a slippery slope—no matter in terms of my own emotion or the story. Sometime I even made it downward slopping on purpose, because when I was trapped in it, the story went beyond the author’s control and characters fell into dismal on their own.
When the comic no longer expresses what I wanted to it became a torture. I want to make a comic which made people feel happy and touched, not tearing open a wound and say ‘Look, it hurts, you must have had similar wounds right? Now let’s cry together’ sort of stuff.
And there are problems in the shift of characters as well. I already mentioned them in the interview this January (T/N: To be translated…or not, depends on if I have the mood. URL below.), so I’ll not repeat myself here.
Another problem is pacing. The aforesaid omitted interesting ideas are results of quick progressing of the main story. The hints of the main story got exposed way too early and I hurried to push its progress, and it would be impossible to explore the side stories when it’s already on the fast lane. I tried, and the comments would be filled by words like ‘it has little to do with the last chapter’. I can’t really blame it on the readers but myself for not taking good control of the wheel. Just like driving, when you’re on the motorway and all your passengers are eager to go home, you can’t simply exit and say ‘let’s enjoy the scenes on the side path’. However if the side stories are not explored, the main story would feel too generalised and not really enjoyable to read.
An ideal state would be moving along the side path for a long time but being able to see the main road from a distance. When the foreshadowing is done, enter the main road and finish the story all along.
It is an important lesson I learned from serialising this comic. I’ll try my best to keep the pace in the future.
3. Bottleneck
It’s actually an effect of the first problem. Because I gathered way less material than I used, I ran into a bottleneck both in the art and writing. I had been stating that I met a bottleneck for more than one year, but I could not suspend the update and I had two ongoing serials so I had no time to recharge myself. It is the worst for an author to know his problem and the way to fix it but have no time or energy to. However, real comic masters could keep several serials ongoing while having new ideas popping up all the time, and that is the difference between me and them. After careful consideration it is probably because of different methods and habits. I made a timetable to drastically reduce time spent on microblog (T/N: Chinese twitter) and arranged more time for reading. I think it should be possible to keep recharging myself even if I'm busy if I find the right method. After all, I've decided to take a career in comic drawing so I have to draw comics interesting to both myself and the readers. For me I believe if I could achieve the former I would naturally achieve the latter. It is a pity that I haven’t felt like that for a long time. I had to stop and look around to make satisfactory stories again.
Actually the comic ends at roughly halfway of my original outline. I decided to end it for the aforesaid reasons, just like when a paragraph gets too long it should come to a full stop and start another.
I mentioned art before and it is actually a huge problem. Although I've been told a long time ago that ‘we come here for story not art’ but it is really painful when I found my art skill is not enough to express what I wanted to. Having to replace a scene I want with a second choice is really discouraging. Now I have more time after ending the serialisation and I would like to improve my skill. I like simple art style but my skill level is low within such style. I want to have some special training (and I can get more money if my art improved). (T/N: From the looks of the second part you didn't…)
All Hail is the first long serialisation of me and a comparatively popular one. I love her no less than anybody. It is exactly the reason why I have to end it. I want to try some more directions and find some answers, then come back. Just like Hua. Hope you can see a completely new Nova All Hail when we meet again.
T/N: The interview mentioned: http://www.acfan.com/html/14-04-25-2.html
It contains information on the planned animation (it has been 3 years...) as well.
T/N 2: I may resume the scanlation work, or I'm also happy if some group is willing to take the project, and I would like to retain a consultant position on certain translations and cultural/ social/ economical background involved. PM me if anyone is interested.
Edited by inter681, 15 November 2015 - 08:40 PM.
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