8. Gilda And Meek "Enter Tork" Special Edition (Un-Iverse #8)
Rating: PG-13. (Some bloody violence, language, adult themes, and sexual and drug references.)
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Gilda And Meek #8 "Enter Tork" Special Edition (Un-Iverse #8)
The Author totally botched the Piranha's return to the group in the Original First Edition of "Enter Tork", and made it dull and anticlimactic as hell. In fairness to me, I was still relatively new at this at the time, and I simply did not possess the skills to make that return good. Now that I CAN maybe make the reunion tense, joyful, emotionally complicated, and exciting, maybe I'll TRY that now? Just a thought. We'll see.
Here is something readers might notice. Although the Piranha's return is markedly better than it was, I most certainly did not make it as epic and action-packed and filled with tension as I wound up making the later issues of Gilda And Meek, F.I.S.H., and Lace Doilies. My perspective was I didn't need to make the Piranha's return explosive or mindblowing. It just needed to land and have tension to it. You might be disappointed I redid the entire issue for that moment and declined to go balls to the walls with it. But I was looking for good, not great. And now it's good.
Seriously not looking to make things great yet. Too soon and the reader needs to get used to how things work before whacking them over the head with the awesome stick. That's how I write, and how The Un-Iverse works. And it always has.
I'm not going to say this is the last Un-Iverse Special Edition ever. There are a couple more early issues I would like to someday spruce up. But it's the last Special Edition until after I finish both The Terran Wars and the saga itself. But it's the final issue I wanted redone before I did the big stuff. Everything else is "good enough" to wait on. This was the only other issue besides "Groundwork" that was personally unacceptable to me. Unlike "Groundwork: First Edition", "Enter Tork: First Edition": has always had its charms. But it also has always had a TON of faults that I felt strongly enough about rectifying to do it before I got into The Un-Iverse's actual Endgame.
One of the interesting things about the Special Editions, and every time I do one I will make sure this fact is consistent, is that even if the scripts have a lot of differences with the First Edition, the newer version is structured and written in a way that if a fan prefers the First Edition, they can use THAT in their headcanon instead. Nothing in later issues ever contradicts any changes ever made. Both versions fit identically well. Both versions have an equal claim to official canon, based solely on the Reader's preference. For me, it's the Special Editions all the way, but I will never delete the old versions from my site, just for all the Old-School Gilda And Meek fans who actually dig how unpolished things used to be. Which is The Official History? You Tell Me What Happened.
One of the happier surprises about drawing the Special Edition for this issue is realizing I got to fix a problem I previously did not even notice. Are you aware that in the First Edition, Gilda never actually takes back the Idol of Light from Augatha? Meek still said he gave it to Vic at the end but the reader might be led to wonder how Meek got it in the first place. That was actually a total oversight on my end, that I am glad I was able to fix. Shit like that occurred much less in the later issues but this is another thing that tells me this was the right issue for the Special Edition.
Speaking of things I desperately wanted to fix, I FINALLY got the right expression on Gilda for "Well, you only had such a great head-start because I wasn't born yet." Out of all my artistic failings in the first 8 issues (and they were myriad) one of the biggest is Gilda's awful expression on that during the First Edition. I was going for badass, but she looks like a total psychopath with those bulging eyes and toothy grin instead. Here, Gilda barely raises her eyebrow as she boredly says the most badass thing she's ever said. Which is the right expression. Isn't hindsight great?
The "Because Gilda is cool," thing remains my favorite moment in the issue, Special Edition or not. I freaking LOVE that. You are entitled to cool heroes instead of assholes trying to make their rivals feel like crap for showing the slightest bit of growth and progress. Pop-culture just didn't understand you were.
Julius's scene making fun of Gabrielle for Vic Puff is also still a crowd-pleaser and I predict STILL the most universally recognizable scene in the saga so far.
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