The cancellation row: Mare-Do-Well Strikes! · 3:55am Aug 31st, 2016
Alright, let's start the grimmest series I've (and I hope will) ever do on this or any other site. Writer's block, real life problems, creative crashes and more stuff has condemned these stories to oblivion. Some of them may rise from the ashes of cancellation by the hand of more capable writers, while others will move to the limbo of the forgotten dreams.
Of course, I want to give these lost stories a last goodbye, with all the dignity an idea deserves.
Today's axe is going down on Mare-Do-Well Strikes!
What was I even thinking?
I can actually remember it. It all started not shortly after JB von Herb finished his amazing Mare-Do-Well: Regeneration. That was one of the stories that inspired me into writing and JB is a very close friend and mentor. There was no way I was going to let the emotion of that story fade anytime soon.
So, Trixie as Mare-Do-Well. That was the core idea.
Now, JB's style was very intense. If I had to describe it, I would call it the missing child between Frank Miller's characters and Christopher Nolan's atmosphere. There was also a lot of Michael Bay action and Guy Ritchie's characterizations. In other words, Mare-Do-Well: Regeneration was cinematographic in every sense of the word. Therefore, I was going to do my own take on the idea by taking influence from another source: comics.
I sketched an origin story mixing J.T. Krull's Green Arrow with Marv Wolfman's Vigilante. The setting and supporting cast came directly from Todd McFarlane's Spawn while the setting was practically Scott Snyder's Detective Comics. If both stories were songs, MDW: Regeneration was a piece of jazz, structured but not afraid of improvising, while Mare-Do-Well Strikes! was a 90's mixed tape.
I honestly tried to bring in an original story, starting with the hero already on the suit and running the secret identity part on the reader too. I do believe those where the more appealing parts of the story, jumping right into the action to give the reader an spectacle to see on entering and a mystery for them to think about when leaving.
However, for every original thing, I forgot to develop something. None of the side characters had a real personality beyond an specific trait, the setting was unfocused and probably misused and the overall plot was too deep into the long game, feeling aimless in the single chapters. I eventually got called out for it and more in a requested review (and I want to thank Princess of Edits for the time and effort in doing said review).
From there, like the aforementioned mix tape, I was doing it all on the fly and of course it collapsed. After a good trio of chapters (of disputed quality) I ran out of enthusiasm and let it go. I think it was when trying to get Chapter four out of the sketchbook that I realized I wasn't even doing my own thing, but rather adapting and rewriting three of four stories from other sources plus my own. I silently stopped updating it and eventually forgot the story even existed.
I'm really sorry and I deeply apologize to all the readers that wanted their story to have a proper ending.
Now, I still have the sketchbook were I wrote down the future chapters and major arcs. If anyone is interested in taking over writing duties, just comment bellow and I will send you the sketchbook for you to have a north on where was the story going. If nobody asks for it, I will just publish the sketchbook as a final chapter, officially mark the story as cancelled and let it rest in peace.
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Well, I guess that, in the same way some ideas from The Doom Patrol, even the core concept, ended up in Actually, I'm Dead, the ones from Mare-Do-Well Strikes! can be salvaged. Of course, keeping the sketchbooks at han was always the plan. In fact, whenever I start a fic, I always make one of those.
That's a very inspirational story for how did Regeneration came to be. I remember reading the original scene, the one with the mecha, surrounded by flames, in your Deviantart.
I will keep on with publishing the sketchbooks because that's the minimal I can do for my readers. It wont be the story they were expecting, but it will give them the needed closure. Also, doing so is my way to acknowledge that those stories had more to offer than the beginnings. Who knows, maybe in doing os, I can get that drive I'm lacking these days.
Thank you very much for your support. I'm always happy of knowing you as a mentor and being able to call you my friend.