Bonus
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Location, location, location
The story “The Chasm” was originally supposed to take place in China. We already had these images on hand and it’s while reading about their origins that our story began to take shape. We kept some elements that we transposed into the story.
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The qualities of a writer
Matt Goldberg draws this conclusion from Fincher’s almost traumatic experience filming Alien 3: “The lesson from Alien 3 was that ‘it’s always going to be your fault,’ so why not take full credit whether people go for it or not?” (“The Film of David Fincher: SE7EN,” collider.com, September 23, 2014).
This could be slogan of DIY. But we think you must already have those tendencies if you go that route. On that subject, we found this analysis of the work of Chris Claremont on the X-Men (Chris Sims, “Ask Chris # 186: The Strange Rise of the X-Men,” www.comicsalliance.com, March 7, 2014) and an interview with Rick Remender (David Dissanayake, “Rick Remender on Creator Owned Work, Creative Process & More (Part 1),” comicbook.com, September 22, 2014). Both cover a lot of ground, but they also point out the qualities an author has to have. For Remender, those are passion and quality. The idea of quality can be subjective, while passion can have various implications. But Chris Sims, in talking about Claremont’s work, mentions investment and devotion. In short, you have to be ready to dedicate time to the project because, in any case, no one else is going to do it for you.
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The Internet and critiques
In his retrospective on Seven, Matt Goldberg said: “We can fill in excuses, but the tightness of the script does leave these flaws a bit glaring, although none of them derail the movie because we’ve been trained to accept movie serial killer logic, and the film isn’t really about the particulars of his plan as much as what that plan means.” (“The Film of David Fincher: SE7EN,” collider.com, September 23, 2014). As a reader or a viewer, we are ready to accept a little improbability in a work, and if we’re captivated, we forget about it. For example, in the good years of the series 24, there were tons of inconsistencies that we could see after the fact, but while we watched, the pace had us totally hooked.
But the Internet spoils some of this magic. There are sites specialized in systematic nitpicking. Pre-Internet, such critiques existed but they had a limited field of action. But now, the playing field is wide, wide open. Here’s Matt Singer on this phenomenon: “There’s something else at work here beyond simple popularity, though. As detailed in a recent study reprinted at Smithsonian.com, while ‘joy moves faster than sadness or disgust,’ on social media, ‘nothing is speedier than rage.'” (“Nitpicking the Nitpickers,” thedissolve.com, August 25, 2014). This situation creates a weird atmosphere, where creators fear popular judgement, and where a whole industry of destructive creation comes into play. To be clear, we’re not rejecting this type of critique, which is often accurate. We’re only complaining that they have become a pretty standard form of clickbait.
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Maintaining the rhythm of our stories
When we started to put together the trilogy of confrontation, explosion and counter-offensive, we saw the opportunity to get Benson out of the Bunker to increase the tension between him and Wood. However, we felt there was a story missing between the time of Benson’s departure and the positioning of the assault team. So we developed “The Chasm.” We already had this story in the back of our minds, but decided this was the right time to flesh it out.
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Touch-ups (The Confrontation – Part II)
Correcting a panel doesn’t always mean correcting something already drawn. It can also mean adding something in, or even adding pages. We asked our collaborator to add a new page to create a transition marking the end of the hostilities—for now. Also, it allowed a space for Cartier to reflect on events to come.
