Wonderous second part of four greetings to all the wonderful December-y Tricksters!

Ah, the plot, she is thickening, no? This week continues the 4 part Xmas special Megalo Life, and I gotta' say, even thought the format is bigger and takes even more time to complete, I'm having a blast putting this serial together ^__^! This week was especially fun because I got to paint some interesting background scenes, and work on some 'mood' as well as doing a slight bit of action. I personally really enjoy fleshing out larger sequences and incorporating some pantomime. So far, each part of this short serial has been a chance to focus on a different aspect of sequential story-telling, and this week's episode is no different. There's a lot of running in this episode, and I did finally get the chance to show a character flying. The only problem, is that I've never seen how Rudolph flies in the game: does he float? Does he go all Superman? Does he buy a ticket like every other terran based biped for a ride on a plane? I ended up just going with the very basic and straightforward: erm, he just flies, flies like a biped reindeer… thing.

When I first set out to make a little Holiday Special for Megalo Life, I really thought that it would be too big (in terms of traditional page count). I have a very terrible tendency to write elaborate and long scripts, and story-arcs as it is. Most of the time, I end up pairing down the original idea into a single event or scene, completely throwing out all of the back story, and most of the non-important set-up for the situation. As it turns out, this serial is playing out to be basically what a 'full' version of the regular Megalo Life episodes would be if I didn't edit them to take out all the extra stuff. Which is really fun ^__^. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to present an entire episode of Megalo Life more or less in its entirety, the same way I see it in my head (or script it in the prelim stages), even if the presentation of that one long, or full length, episode is broken into 4 installments.

I think we can certainly count this as an interesting experiment for the Megalo Life series. From what I've seen so far, the response has generally been positive ^__^ for which, I am very happy. If this works out, it may well be a format that I continue to explore (multi-part episode arcs) and even expand to a more deeply developed and realized episode series. But, right now I'm getting a head of myself. Let's see how the rest of this serial goes, shall we.

Lately, in the commentaries, I've been more than a little remiss in addressing the comments and questions that I get. So real quick, I'll be taking the opportunity to try and rectify that for at least a few of the questions that I receive (I seem to be getting more and more of them through MySpace these days…).

First answers for some of the comments of the last few weeks (in no particular order):

Rudolph's nose is not red in this serial, because it's important that he match the in-game design.

The Monster Turkey from Dr. Reincloff gives 40 Billion Exp (if solo'd)… j/k it doesn't exist in-game, sadly.

Yes, Don Giuvanni does treat himself very well (including the 5 daily pamperings) I think I tend to imagine him similar to Hugh Grant's character in About A Boy.

The tension between La Befana and Santa started with the in-game event from last year. More importantly, La Befana is a real cultural figure (same as Santa) for the winter holidays. And I think it is the fact that they both compete for icon-ship of the same holiday that continues their discord.

And next, answers for some of the emails I've received:

The Cemeterians will be worked into a trade at some point I promise… someday, I know not when. In a related note, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, if the same will be said for Megalo Life, although personally I would at the least find the prospect interesting.

Yes, I really do think La Befana looks like a missing bandmate from the Holograms!

I do love presents, unfortunately, I don't have any sort of POBox set-up as of yet, but I think I'll start working on that. And thank you for wanting to make things for our son ^__^!

Actually, my favorite color is not black (although I wear it the most) - it's actually pepto-pink (a color I almost never wear)… I just love the way it looks, especially in my paintings.

Yes, I really am Native American (not all of course), and yes one grandmother was very English, while the other was straight from the rez. It did make for odd if not strained holiday celebrations.

No, I unfortunately am not sure about any cons that I will be attending this year. My son is coming at a time that will make it very difficult to really attend any of the summer shows. But I do have a new book coming out so, maybe I will be around, and in hideously-pseudo-glorious person, to boot!

Yes, I do pick on Chaos a lot. And if I don't generally specify another GM in the episode, it is Chaos. Chaos and I are good friends, and I think he rather likes being portrayed in the episodes.

No I don't really do commissions outside of the con/show circuit. Mostly, because I like to be able to meet the person that I'm drawing them for, face-to-face, and the turn around time is very short. Also, I really despise having to visit, or use the Post, which is what is usually entailed in commissions…

Yes, the words between my name and the post-script are the name and link to information on whatever band or album I'm listening to as I write these, or work on the episode that week.

And yes, there are usually at least a few links to ref's and resources laid into the text in the commentaries. I don't know why they don't always show as underlined, or change the cursor image correctly when hovered over… but they're there. No, really, they are!

I think that that pretty solidly wraps up the commentary for this week. Make sure to come back next week for the 3rd installment in the 4 episode Xmas special! Rudolph finds some allies, Santa really is in trouble, and La Befana gets to… well, I'll guess you'll have to see ^__^.

Cheers,

--Aleister D D Gilgrim

MSi - You'll Rebel To Anything

PS

The signature for this week, is in honor of the fact that it's December… and it's frickin' hot out here… I hate hot weather. Southern California only has 2 types of weather: Summer, and not exactly Summer. *sigh*