FP Backstage: The First Drafts

It's a Tuesday, and we're only posting on Fridays at the moment.  This morning, Tim completed the one-hundredth episode of Fort Paradox (the 101st in narrative order, but the 100th to have its illustrations completed).  We recently finished posting a chapter set in the Ship's Archives.  So it seems like a good day to open the actual Archives, and start showing you some of the preliminary material that's helped to shape those 100 strips.  Welcome to Fort Paradox Backstage: The First Drafts.

Me being the stickler for logic that I am, I think it'd make sense to begin at the beginning, so for today's nostalgia trip I thought I'd show you my very first script notes for what was then called "The D'Antarran Warp" and set on the ruined planet D'Antarran in Universe XGT.  This lot dates from circa 2009, when Brothers in Shells was in its infancy, and before I'd even mooted the cross-continuity idea to Tim and Sarah.  You might spot some suspicious similarities to the first few episodes of the comic as it was actually produced, but there are some pretty major differences too.

Happy reading...

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EPISODE 1

Script by MGHC

Cylinder and Miserable arrive on D’Antarran.

CYLINDER
Whoa!  That was a wild trip.

MISERABLE
You just spoke in Calibri instead of Abadi Condensed... oh crud, so did I.  Please, please, please don’t tell me we’ve ended up outside of our normal continuity again...

CYLINDER
Looks like we have.

MISERABLE
Dammit.

CYLINDER
Hey, on the bright side, you’ve still got your favourite catchphrase.

MISERABLE
Yeah, I have.  Whoopee-doo.

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EPISODE 2

Script by MGHC

CYLINDER
So, now that we know where we aren’t, how about we try and work out where we...

FORKLEY makes an unceremonious entrance.

FORKLEY
OI!  What are you two doing in D’Antarran?

CYLINDER
I dunno.  We just sort of… turned up here unexpectedly.

FORKLEY
Look, this is a restricted area.  If you can’t explain better than that, then I’m afraid I’ll have to send you to the Tharryk Cluster for detention.

JEFF THE NINJA SNAIL also turns up.

JEFF
Excuse me, sunglasses?

CYLINDER
Name’s Cylinder.  Cylinder the Cylinder.

JEFF
Cylinder, Cylinder the Cylinder, is this forklift giving you trouble?

CYLINDER
A bit.

JEFF
Then stand aside, and I shall sort him out with my lightning ninja moves!

CYLINDER
Can I be pragmatic and point out that you’re a snail?

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EPISODE 3

Script by MGHC

JEFF
Indeed, I am a snail.  But I am no ordinary mollusc.

MISERABLE
Do continue?

JEFF
I... am a Shadow Ninja Snail.

MISERABLE
A what? Are they meant to be even scarier than regular ninja snails?

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'Episode 1' and 'Episode 2' bear relatively little resemblance to any scenes in the finished comic, especially with Miserable not arriving until Episode 55, and Forkley becoming less antagonistic (the butlerish way he comes across in 'Episode 2' is out of character, and although Episode 6 still has him a bit on the grumpy side, his portrayal in the other finished episodes of Fort Paradox is generally closer to how he is in UXGT).

However, you might like to compare 'Episode 3' against the actual Episode 4...

Personally, I think the actual episodes were a lot better.  Anyone disagree?


Episode 85 comes out this Friday, and in next Tuesday's instalment of FP Backstage you might even get to see some concept art!  Stay tuned...


- The Colclough (on behalf of itself & TMJ & SRJ)