Factional: I wanted to move on to, I guess a good place to start would be how long have you guys been planning this? First I was aware was when Mary mentioned it at last year's Armageddon.
Bethany: Think I have first drawings and concept art from early 2013, and we were talking about a full on comic and story sometime in late 2013 before sitting down and planning in 2014, and trying to get a blog set up and get some people interested.
Fac: How important was the setting? Did that come first or were you both interested in the time travel part of the story and then settled on Ancient Eygpt?
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| Bethany started with a bunch of nameless characters. |
Mary was the one who really wanted to do the Ancient Egypt setting and obviously the New Zealand one was well, since the comic does, briefly, unfold in NZ. But both of us I think had a big interest in Ancient Egypt!
Mary: Fools [Bethany] already had the characters, in very primitive, non-fleshed out forms. And, we've both always been interested in history, but my favourite was always Ancient Egypt. Since I'm the writer, Fools suggested that we do that since we both have a lot of prior interest-led research about it. Having the modern teen character and the pharaoh one, time travel was an inevitable in the story - annnnnd, yeah setting it in Egypt of the past just strengthens the need for our research we've been passively doing our whole lives. So they sort of all happened at the same time? I love time travel/stories about the characters being displaced from their original setting. I've never really experienced that feeling myself, and reading/writing about that feeling is like living that by proxy. All the problems and internal conflicts that happen as a result of being taken completely out of your comfort zone - out of place or out of time. Mum once suggested I read Cross-stitch because that's basically what that series is about. It was terrible.
Fac: She meant well Mary, she really did.
The art looks real slick Bethany. Did that influence the way Mary approached the story? (When I first saw the concept art it was like looking at something produced by Disney or Pixar.)
Bethany: Haha wow thank you! What a comparison! Uh, well I don't know! I kept it all bright and colourful to suit the light hearted nature of the story!
Fac: It does seem light hearted but it has an edge to it. The real cosmic opening took me by surprise (also I think the guy in the back of the bus stop should of been a dead dude!)*
Bethany: He was totally dead no matter what Mary said. Cover up all your artistic failings by just saying the character is dead.
Fac: So, has there been in surprises in the development and execution of RP?
Bethany: Kind of? I was mostly surprised that people enjoyed and liked the sound of the idea because it's not new or even revolutionary, there's been plenty of "the liar revealed" type stories and time travel stories, but people seemed to really respond to our initial posts and planning stages. I'm surprised that so many people are invested in it when it's only just started.
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| Slick, researched artwork. |
Mary: The only real surprise is that it was intended to be silly and humorous and I am struggling to do that as I keen thinking about it so seriously!! The Nu is a very important concept and entity to me so I find it very hard to not want it to have serious elements? However the Egyptian pantheon is filled with myths that are very silly and humorous, the gods do ridiculous things. Horus tricks Set to eat his semen on a salad. The Nu doesn't really have many silly stories to go with it though, very little compared to the main pantheon of gods, I think that The Nu wasn't really worshiped, but just sort of an ever present thing. So I'm finding this weird internal dilemma between wanting it to be serious and respectful to the cosmic egg I love, but also kinda causal. A being that is everything ever would be pretty casual to hang out with, because you are them. I don't know. I'm surprised.
Fac: Were there similar tensions in Nothing Fits? I found while it was funny, and the style Alex used leant itself to humour, there was a real angry energy to events (I really liked that about it).
Mary: Not really. I think maybe it's the research element that makes my brain think: research = serious. Nothing Fits had very very minimal research/none at all.
Fac: You guys seem to have a lot of projects on the go. Is it difficult to juggle all of those different worlds?
Mary: A little? I imagine it's harder for Fools, because she's actually actively working on her other projects.
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| Juggling projects can be a struggle. |
Fac: Anything you want to add in closing?
Bethany: Nah I don't think I have anything to add? Except probably that the creepy cat was my fault if anyone is looking for someone to blame for that idea.
END
Read part one
Read part two
Follow the progress of Rosetta Phone here
*Eagle eyed readers can follow the controversial ‘Case of the Disappearing Commuter’ on pages 4 and 5 of Rosetta Phone. The smart money says he’s dead.
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