E-mail/F.A.Q.

 

HYPOTHETICAL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

I don't want to be dick. But I also don't want to get a few dozen(I'm being realistic- I'm not exactly Tycho or Gabe) e-mails asking the same questions. So... guys and gals, for the sake of my sanity, please read these hypothetical frequently asked questions before e-mailing me with inquiries. And also keep in mind anyone who repeats questions here is probably not going to get a response from me unless they really piss me off.

 

Okay, maybe I want to be a A BIT of a dick. But just a bit.

 

Hypothetical Question: What is this comic?

 

Answer: "Ram" is a new comic featuring my old character, The Ram. "Ram," however, is not a sequel, prequel, or continuation of "Saga of the Ram," the first webcomic I made featuring The Ram characters. "Ram" is basically me starting over. I wasn't satisfied with "Saga of the Ram" when I stopped making it and in retrospect, I think I can do better now as both a writer and an artist.

 

Q: Why did Saga of the Ram end?

 

A: I'm going to be blunt and admit that I was dealing with a lot of serious issues a few years ago. I was not in a very good place back then and my frustrations with the comic were salt in the wounds, so to speak.

 

Q: So why start the story over? Why not just continue it where Saga of the Ram left off?

 

A: In retrospect I find Saga of the Ram not to be as good as it could have been. I genuinely believe that I can tell the story better now.

 

Q: Why did Saga of the Ram's archives vanish from the internet?

 

A: Two really annoying coincidences. Or a conspiracy, but coincidences don't sound as crazy. The black and white first several chapters of the comic were hosted by Purrsia, while the subsequent chapters colored by Richard Wyatt were hosted by Graphic Smash. Well, Purrsia experienced a severe crash and the archives there were all lost to the cruel mistress we call the internet. In the case of Graphic Smash, the comics were taken down simply to make room for new features.

 

Not-So-Hypothetical Statement: I'm going to e-mail the editors of Graphic Smash and complain about this!

 

Response: I reeeeeeeaaaalllllllyyyyyyy do not want anyone else to e-mail any former or present editors of Graphic Smash about Saga of the Ram being taken down. Because I don't care that it happened anymore. I forgave the editor who took the comic down, and I only bring this up because people have complained to him in the past about this and I really don't want it to happen again. I appreciate that people like my old work but the past is the past.

 

Q: Will you ever put the old Ram comics back online with another host?

 

A: I could, but quite frankly, it'd be a real pain in the ass for me to do. None of them are archived on my current computer system and given that we're talking about uploading few hundred images, it's not something I look forward to sacrificing a weekend for. This is once again a situation where I appreciate people liking the old comics, but there's a limit to that.

 

Q: Why is Rick Maine an animutate in "Saga of the Ram" but a regular human being in "Ram?"

 

A: When I first created the Ram character in the 90's, I was a kid who was influenced by the Disney cartoons of the time that featured anthromorphic characters like Darkwing Duck and the Rescue Rangers. Naturally, I drew Ram as an animal-person because of the cartoons that influenced my art. As I grew older and got into superhero comics, I found myself creating stories with humans and animal-people mixed together. To create a distinction I dubbed the animal people "animutates." Unfortunately, any time you see animal-people on the web they get labeled as "furries." Now don't get me wrong and think I have anything against the furry scene. I may not consider myself a furry, but I'm still a part of the scene given that I use anthromorphs in comics that write, including Fur Will Fly and Coming Up Violet. I believe that furry comics and art are as valid as any other comics and art featured on the web and that they take a lot of unnecessary crap from people who are made uncomfortable by them. But in Saga of the Ram, it just never seemed to fit that Rick, Ariel, Jamie and several other characters were these animal-people living in a superhero-based world. I tried to make it work, but it ended up feeling very stilted to me. Another problem that became more obvious to me was that it would be almost impossible for Rick to be an animutate and keep people from realizing he was the animutate vigilante, The Ram, since there were only about ten animuatetes living in his city. That required more suspension of disbelief than Superman disguising himself with a pair of glasses. So in "Ram" everyone who was an animutate in "Saga of the Ram" will now be a regular human being.

 

Q: Will the stories in "Ram" be the same as the stories in "Saga of the Ram?"

 

A: Some events in "Ram" will occur as they did in "Saga of the Ram." Many others will not. But I do want people to keep in mind that comments posted on the site that may spoil future events in "Ram" that will occur the same way or a similar way to "Saga of the Ram" will be deleted. I don't want to spoil the story for any readers new to The Ram's adventures.

 

Q: How does this affect The "Fans!/Saga of the Ram" crossover?

 

A: While Ram had a cameo in the final chapter of the first Fans! series(Jason Waltrip drew one of my characters. That's reason enough to die happy), the crossover story "The Beam in Your Eye" only occurred in "Saga of the Ram" and probably isn't part of the "Fans!" cannon. I say "probably" because I have no idea when or why it would come up in any of T Campbell's future "Fans!" stories.

 

Q: Why are you using so many quotes marks?

 

A: Because I can. Try and stop me.

 

Q: Isn't this whole "Hypothetical frequently Asked Questions" page being both presumptuous and really condescending?

 

A: It sure is.

 

And that's all I've got. I know perfectly well the majority of people on the internet have too short an attention span to read all of that and just scrolled down to the bottom of the page. But now I have an excuse to be a dick to people who ignored all of this.

 

AWESOME.

 

E-mail: mechatodd at yahoo dot com