Monster Crowd, a preface (project with Crazy-Wolf) (Patreon)

Greetings everybody! :)

This is the first message where I’ll start sharing the project me and Crazy-Wolf (https://www.deviantart.com/crazy-wolf) started working on!
Just a little somewhat-pulp somewhat-steampunk adventure, with evil nazis, evil vampires, ghouls and underworld societies, flying machines, and a bunch of other stuff coupled with silly shonen humor you could have in Fullmetal Alchemist.

This message will serve as a preface before I’ll start working on a proper summary along with some art: I’ve re-read the one I sent to Crazy-Wolf, and there are still some plot-holes and odd “shortcuts” that need to be fixed.

We never managed to find a proper title, though a few ideas crossed my mind: “Wild Hearts”, “We Are From Fate”, “Children of Fate”, “Monstrous”, but nothing that ended up pleasing me enough. For the time being, I’ll just call this story “Monster Crowd” since it could somewhat fit with the themes, but I still consider it to be a temporary title.

Firstly, to be clear: the story was first written by me and I pitched it to Crazy-Wolf. I still have the email I sent him with the PDF attached. He brought in a few comments and changes because, unlike me, Crazy-Wolf went to a script-writing school, and was much more versed than me in the inner structures of a story and plot, what interesting beats can be used to keep momentum, how to transition from an act to another, etc. He was even trying to pitch his own TV series to one of his country’s broadcasters, working on shortmovies, etc…
Seriously, if he had a series of struck of good luck, the right connections, money, and if unfortunately hadn’t passed away, I believe Crazy-Wolf would have become a known figure in the movie industry...

Anyway, we never had the time to really polish that plot. We discussed it, worked a bit on some sketches, started going our separate ways, working on our own projects while still saying "hey, we need to do Monster Crowd at some point!".

And one day, 9 years ago, Crazy-Wolf passed away...

95% of what I have right now, the characters, plots, ideas and themes are mine, for better and worse. So, let’s say I’ll take full ownership and responsibility for this mess! ^^” But don’t fret, I’ll always point out when an idea came from Crazy-Wolf instead of from me.


Regarding inspirations

Here are some inspirations that started coming to my mind once I got working on the plot!

Nadia and the Secret of Blue Water.

Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki.

Steamboy: story is weak, but the visuals are absolutely amazing (and what a soundtrack!).

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a movie that, while clearly with issues, is an absolute pulp geek-fest that has unfortunately faded into oblivion.

Indiana Jones (no pictures needed XD), and to some extent the movie series Underworld (even though I don’t like them and find them corny as hell).

I’ll also try to do some art, because so far the only real pic I did of this project was this little sketch from 10 years ago of the main character, Uriel (will change the eye color to brown:)

Uriel

Unlike Kylian, I didn’t do much with this character as you can tell...

And here’s a little colored sketch Crazy-Wolf did of a secondary character, Leonard. I don't remember if he did the colors as well, or just a simple sketch that I colored after.
I’ve never shared it with anyone else and I’m just realizing now how odd it is for me to post it, since this is likely the very last known piece of art that will be released of him as Crazy-Wolf.

Leonard (art by Crazy-Wolf): 

He did send me another sketch at some point of the main character, but unfortunately I seem to have forever lost it, but I’ll keep looking for it just in case.

I also do have a good idea of a poster for Monster Crowd, but I haven’t drawn it yet...And as I write this, I realize said poster won’t be featuring any crowd, so I’ll definitely need to find another title! XD


About the story!...Well...It actually kinda sucks!

The main reason I’m sharing this story is because of Crazy-Wolf. Firstly to pay homage to him, and because he got interested when I first pitched it to him. I’m also certain some of you would like to know what the heck we were working on.
Would I release it if I hadn’t shared it with Crazy-Wolf? Honestly I don’t know.
Let me be clear: I do NOT think this is a very good story, and Kylian's Adventure ended up becoming more of a passion project.
It’s super corny and edgy at moments. Not as edgy as flipping Elon Musk cosplaying as some Dark Sasuke, but close...You know: like a teen thinking he knows everything about the world and trying to say deep stuff, feeling all smart, but looking like a stupid edge lord. That’s Monster Crowd in a nutshell!

The first seeds of this story are old. I’m talking more than 15 years old-old, when I was in my early twenties. So keep that in mind: I was young and fool when I got the idea of the story and themes. It’s only around 2008 that I started having a proper cast of characters and a proper story with a beginning, middle and end, and in 2012 I sent the first draft to Crazy-Wolf.
It’s funny because I feel all of that happened yesterday, and yet it was a long time ago and I’m not a kid anymore...Even though, spoiler alert for my younger audience, once you’re close to 40 you realize you’re still the same dumb kid you’ve always been, just pretending you know how to play the game of adulthood (while suddenly your body starts hurting everywhere!)...
But, since I’m a bit “wiser” now I guess, and can see things differently, I can say “yeah, it’s corny as hell, wanting to be smart and thinking it’s smart while being dumb as shit...But teenage me would have loved it.”
And I think that’s ultimately the thing with all of my stories: I won’t pretend to be an "Author" who’s writing great fiction, I’m not JRR Tolkien: I’m just writing the stuff I’d have liked as a teen or young adult!

Massive trigger warning!!

Fair word of warning: this story is likely to upset a lot of people for a bunch of reasons that I’ll detail a bit more below.
On top of it being somewhat dark and violent at moments (though not more violent than Fullmetal Alchemist for instance), it deals with complex themes that I’m not really knowledgeable about to properly handle.
Secondly, it certainly has elements that could come across as MASSIVELY insensitive and offensive: more about that later.
And finally, this story will offend because nuance has become non-existent in this era of the internet and everybody deserves to be canceled (since public lynching is now illegal).
Meee? Saltyyy? My, why would you think that?!...

So I’m probably going to get canceled for many reasons. But hey, let’s look at the bright side: just call me names, cancel me already and move on so I can focus on my craft.

With how things are nowadays, I fear that on one hand I’m gonna be called an anarcho-communist-leftist woke sjw snowflake by some people (hey fine by me: I definitely lean more towards that side), while on the other hand I’m gonna be balled a fascist-racists-nazi-sympathizer by some others.

See, on one hand my main cast of characters is rather diverse, in terms of race (humans and non-humans, even though they all look like furs), ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, religion, etc...
That is bound to upset some people who only want to see white alpha males as main characters, but also some other type of people on the other side of the political spectrum since you know the drill: as a white artist (even though I’m mixed race, but I pass as white), if you don’t include minorities in your work you’re racist and problematic.
But you’re also racist and problematic if you DO include minorities, because you’re obviously going to do it wrongly, plus that’s appropriation, tokenisation and taking the space of minorities + POC artists.

Then on the other hand, Monster Crowd also features!...Erm, I’ll go back to “on the other hand” a bit later, because that’s gonna be long and that’s the real trigger warning!

While I believe this story could be turned into gold in the right hands, with just me in charge things are bound to go downhill. It delves at moments with very serious, delicate and complicate themes to tackle, and I’m 100% unequipped to deal with them properly.
I wouldn’t even try to release this as a novel without having a team of people from diverse minorities, and holding some Phds, working with me as sensitivity readers and advisers, because the risk of screwing things up is a bit high otherwise.


So, about the really problematic stuff...

So, do you want to know what is the original seed of Monster Crowd?
What really set everything into motion and lead to this story?
The main foundation without which the story simply CAN NOT exist?

Oh boy, where to start?...

I was very worried back then of the backlash the story could bring. Right now, I feel said backlash would be multiplied by 10. I expressed my worries to Crazy-Wolf back then: how can we tackle all of it with enough sensitivity without creating a mess and getting into trouble?

So here it goes: I was 21, or 22, watching for the first time Hellboy by Guillermo del Toro, and then this shot of Kroenen happened.

I’ll always remember that moment for the rest of my life.

That simple 2 seconds shot, for 22 years old me, was one of the coolest thing I had ever seen in my entire life and it sent shivers down my spine. And, off topic, it’s also a testament of how much del Toro loves the characters he films, from evil nazis, to monsters, to children trying to survive and find their place in a world devastated by a war that adults unleashed. It’s also a testament of how much he’s in love with the craft of movies at its core: just having the perfect shot, and giving the same equal amount of dedication and love to a sad shot, an emotional one, or an action one like that one with Kroenen...But that’s a story for another time.

Let’s go back to Kroenen: I almost lost my mind when I first saw him. I was like “he just looks awesome in that shot! AWESOME, you hear me? The guy simply sweats gallons of pure badassery, epicness, menace, danger, threat and charisma on screen in just that ONE SHOT!”
The blades! The coat! The mask! The pose! The lighting and the magic happening in the background! Everything!
This is art: the evocative power of that image is simply amazing for a nerd like me. This is what happens when a geek author with a vision like Guillermo del Toro is having a blast behind the camera!

If Guillermo del Toro hadn’t directed Hellboy, Monster Crowd wouldn’t exist. Oh, and if somehow I become famous and can turn Monster Crowd into a feature movie or something, you bet I want Guillermo del Toro to direct it! ^^

I wanted that.
I wanted a main character that would convey the same feeling to some extent, in that type of story (something something that looks cool and magical and evil and whatever).
I wanted a main character that would look the same...Simply because Kroenen was super cool looking in that scene.
That’s all.
The origin of Monster Crowd is as dumb and stupid as this.

You see what the problem is, right?
Monster Crowd only exists because younger me fetishized Kroenen.
Kroenen who is the bad guy.
Kroenen, who is a nazi...

I can't have a main character going around dressed up as a nazi. How the heck can I solve that problem, unless I go full-on parody and absurdity?

Well, I won’t pretend I solved the problem properly, but after several years of thinking I felt I found a solution that I liked, with a story that could work.
And that’s what I sent to Crazy-Wolf.
But ultimately, this is the biggest issue with Monster Crowd.
And young-stupid-me naively thought that, I, without experience nor knowledge in very and extremely complicated issues, could offer some “perspective”.
I find some comfort in the fact that Crazy-Wolf didn't mind it: he liked the story, it was solid enough in his opinion that it was worth giving it a shot.

So that’s it: told you I might get cancelled!


Some of the themes of Monster Crowd.

For what is worth, and after giving it a lot of thought, I’ll finally won’t be using any nazi imagery on Monster Crowd, like the swastika for instance. The story was always meant to take place in an alternate universe instead of Earth, so it’s possible for me to play with that.
I’ll go the Blacksad route instead and use another symbol as a metaphor, just to avoid even more issues. Something like this instead:

I’m not going to delve into the plot right now, but a big theme that ended up emerging dealt with symbolism and meaning, appropriation and forced transformation, and I managed to tie that with the arcs of some characters.

I apologize for my lack of expertise: this is just based on my limited knowledge and, forgive me, wikipedia.
The swastika symbol has existed for thousands of years in several cultures, the word itself comes from Sanskrit, it is a positive symbol in Hinduism...But for most of us in the Western world, it is now a symbol of hate, evil and genocide. And at a time were there’s so much talk about cultural appropriation, to me this is probably the most known example of appropriation, on top of being one of the worst offenders.
I know there's a debate on whether or not they appropriated the Hindu symbol, or used a hooked cross instead, or changed the direction of the arms but all of that is irrelevant for Monster Crowd: at its core there was that idea of appropriation, transformation and monstruosity.

I started thinking: let's say the Third Reich took something personal, that belonged to another culture, tarnished it and then set new rules around its use.
...How would you feel if they did the same to you?
If they used you as the symbol?
If they made you the monster?
But what if whatever you have become isn’t a monster? What if you simply symbolizes a monster, because of human’s perception of what you've become? Of what the nazis did to you?
And would you let that human’s perception dictate your inner thoughts, feelings and conflict?

And so “voilà”. I’m not even sure if what I wrote even makes any sense. But here's a glimpse of Monster Crowd.
Oh boy, what a mess, what a mess...
This is going to be fuuuuuuuun!...XD