The current story arc started with this strip: Hit-Boy.
Kick-Ass is a superhero comic/movie about a guy who wonders why there are no superheroes in real life. So he becomes one… in a comic/movie after all. Therefore it is only natural for a storyline inspired by it to play around with this reality-fiction antithesis. I also thought that referring M Night “What a twist!” Shyamalan would strongly indicate that a big twist is to be expected at the end. Yet, not a single reader wrote a comment that pointed in the right direction.
Just to clarify: This turn of events was already determined when I wrote the script for the first strip of this story arc. I just needed some more time to write the actual dialog for this strip. This took a lot of time since I had to include so much information in it. I hope everything is clear after reading the strip, but here is a more detailed explanation:
It was a movie. A movie about false real-life superheroes. The cell phone video which had been posted on YouTube was also part of the plot. Naturally, the YouTube video got lots of attention because the viewers believed it was real. The cell phone video was produced to drive more interest to the original movie that tells the complete story from the beginning. The complete movie can now be seen at the website of Larisa’s father Ivan. (Larisa always calls her parents by their given names.) Ivan is an artist and some of the visitors might also be interested in his other work, so the movie is also serving as an advertisement for him. The whole thing was the idea of Larisa who also wrote large parts of the screenplay. It’s an amateur production written by a sixth grader; this explains all the improbable events (Brandon’s friend getting a heart-attack) and inaccuracies (the arrest of Brandon by the police officer). Several of these inaccuracies were deliberately written into the script, some were more accidental because I just didn’t bother too much about writing a completely realistic story. There were a few cases where I thought: “Oh, some of the readers point out that X is very unlikely to happen in reality. That’s actually quite cool since this makes it just more authentic for an amateur film.”
After this storyline (there will be two follow-up strips) we will publish more standard comedy strips until the end of the year. After all these action and romance stories I think there is now a need for some classic one-liners and situation comedy.
- Cloud: My secret identity isn’t a secret anymore? No duh! I already had a couple of classmates talk to me about the video yesterday.
- Larisa: … And don’t forget the two hundred thousand people who have already seen the complete movie on Ivan’s website since this morning.
- Cloud: Speaking of your dad; does he know that you’re fiddling with his $2,000 video camera?
- Larisa: I’m not fiddling with it! I’m just waiting for you to finally do the last scene!
- Brandon: The last scene?
- Cloud: Don’t ask!
- Larisa: Anyway, thanks for playing your parts, guys. There’ve been more visitors on Ivan’s site today than in the whole last decade.
- Brandon: You’re welcome. I’m just happy that my little brother finally spent his time on something worthwhile.
- Brandon: However, I still can’t believe that a sixth grader came up with all of this. Absolutely everybody fell for that faked cell phone video!
- Larisa: Show people some moving pictures, and they will believe anything!
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… Should have seen this coming …
I am honestly pretty disappointed in this turn of events. While it is a nice twist in the plot, I loved the idea of Cloud, Ye Thurza, and Yuna being awesome and taking down a real criminal.
What? All was just played? o.O
*facepalm*
Dang, good advertise then. Would watch the movie asap. XD
Hehe, great! Didn’t see this coming.
For some reason Cloud seems annoyed in the last panel…
Sooo disappointed. I was looking forward to the end-battle!
I second the idea of “disappointing”. I thought we would see a battle, but instead we get to see something pretty damn unexpected.
Nice twist though…
WOAH! did NOT see this coming! XD which is what you were shooting for I guess.
What’s funny is how no one managed to avoid being blindsided by this, even when Yuna got involved. We’ve watched Ye Thuza’s antics for so long by now that we’re willing to believe just about anything where she’s concerned. 🙂
Knowing Larisa… I am afraid the Last scene is about some combination of a matchbox, a shirtless Cloud and an octopuss that can see the future.
Aquinox wrote:
Yet another battle? There’ve been lots of fights in this year already. I also think that fights work best in movies/animated cartoons, not in comics.
coyoteBR wrote:
I’m not so sure about the octopus, but the other two things may be quite accurate.
We just got punk’d
*sees at pannel 2*
That Cloud is a spy!
FFFFFFFFFFFFF-
I’ve been had!
I’m upset by this turn of events and do not care for it, but as it is your comic, my complaining will not change things.
I…got…owned. And I believe that if all this happened in real life, everybody would believe it. I fell somewhat happen that Brandon was nice after all but still, what is this I don’t even I don’t even…
There are very few people who can pull off a twist so perfectly, no one can see it coming. I do believe you have just joined those proud few. Congratulations.
Wonderful! Even though I also fell for it… 😉 I love this twist!
When I first saw the Camera, I was thinking, ‘Woah that looks old, must way over 20Kg.’ Cause you see it looked like my Grandfathers old video camera (VHS) which really was over 20Kg in weight, but after seeing the other panels I noticed that it was a smaller more compact version, prob not VHS considering that its all in line with our time, UNLESS Larisa’s Old man had a camera like that…
Nonetheless, very impressive feeling of it all, wonder what the True beginning was or if it was just a short that started where we came in…
Actually, I demand an Arc that is JUST the movie!!! I want to see it damn it!!!
i’m severly disappointed. i’m sorry but i really dont like this. thumbs down me all you want. i belive unless they are telling everyone it’s fake, that this is just plain wrong. unless theyre planning to do what you did and suprise everyone with that info later.
i still love your comic though 🙂
I can honestly say that I didn’t see this ending coming, which is good…
…but at least a LITTLE bit of foreshadowing would have been appreciated.
I love her from now
I don’t comment very often because either I can’t think of anything to say or lots of other people have already said what I want to say by the time I get the chance to see the comic. Happened to find the update sort of early this time so I just wanted to say this was an interesting twist for me. I really hadn’t expected the whole thing to be a publicity stunt. Larissa is so ebil. >:-D The strip may be named Sandra and Woo but in my mind Cloud and his family and Larissa are also the stars of this strip, every bit as much as the title characters are. The way this arc is ending feels a little bumpy, but it works. It was an entertaining ride, and I look forward to many more wonderful story arcs to come. 🙂
A small bit of a let-down, but I am relieved that Cloud and his family wouldn’t really put themselves into harm’s way that way. Or would they?
Looking forward to some good ol levity for a while but I do enjoy these arcs. Awesome.
My feelings are mixed. It’s a clever twist, but you’ve fallen into the lesser-known writing trap where the twist ending is a letdown compared to the ending people expected. Probably the biggest reason the ending disappoints is that the original premise – Cloud and family emulating Kick-Ass – is just within the believability of the comic. After all, we already have Cloud being all but explicitly trained as a rebel tykebomb, and a talking raccoon is part of the premise.
I do like the fact that Brandon’s a nice guy who happens to look shady.
you anything what? you can do anything? or is it a youTube pun
“Show people some moving pictures, and they will believe you anything!”
The ‘you’ shouldn’t be there
Congratulations on a well played fake-out. I have to believe you got all of us with that one.
Oh heck. Talk about blindsided. I totally didn’t see that ending coming. From the other comments, it looks like nobody else did either, so I guess I’m in good company. 🙂
I’m a tad disappointed that the whole story arc turned out to be just a film project, but that’s actually far more realistic than what we were all thinking (Ye Thuza and family as real-life superheros). It also fits with the theme of the comic which (it seems to me) is to be as realistic as possible within the unrealistic context of Woo being a sentient talking animal. 🙂
Yes, I do analyse stories and cartoons until I understand their whole basis. Hollywood obviously doesn’t do this, hence the reason why films such as Richie Rich, Thunderbirds, Inspecter Gadget and Casper were total trash not worth the bother of watching even once. If Hollywood didn’t have the market power to force cinemas to run the trash they release, I doubt any of those films would have ever made back even a tenth of the cost of making them.
Heck, That last paragraph turned into a rant. Well, I’ll leave it anyway because it might promote some healthy discussion on what makes a good film and whether or not Sandra and Woo would translate well to the theatre.
@Novil, BTW, something you did in the last change to the web site now causes one of my web browsers to crash shortly after the page loads (I have two computers with the same version of Firefox). I’m pretty sure that my installation is “bung”, but reinstalling doesn’t fix the problem. It would be nice to know what changes you made, particularly to scripting, since that might point me in the right direction so I can fix the problem. My email address (in Required / not published) is valid for me.
to quote John Locke “I was wrong” I definetley did not see that end coming, but is it just me or do no one seem to suspect the one who plotted all this and made this happen…what will Larisa become?? x
sudden plottwist. i love it. should have seen it comming. i might watch that kick ass movie someday.
btw great art work.
ARGH! >_>
It was just a movie?
Ironically this actually reminds me of a movie…
It also explains my feeling that Larisa
iswas missing somehow.And who would have been a better camera
man-girl?Aaannd: She can’t burn anything while holding the camera ^^”’
its a comic about a movie inspired by a movie inspired by a comic. Full circle.
This is one of the reasons that I stopped reading newspaper comics. No newspaper would have let a storyline as good…no… as *great* as this one run. I’m happy to admit that I never saw this ending coming. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing with this comic, and I’ll keep reading it. 🙂
@ ekimmak:
I really didn’t! I mean, it was so real… inside the comic, that is 😀
Someone wrote:
Eh, if Cloud is warning her now about playing around with the camera, I HIGHLY doubt she was the one filming before. It was probably the actual owner of the camera, namely her father.
Well, you certainly had me going.
@ Marvelous TK:
Some of us didn’t see it coming ’cause we must live in a closet as at least I have never heard of nor seen the movie that was being parodied.
That Cloud is a spy!
MENTLEGEN
Also, I really thought it was the script writer’s lack of skill causing the improbable events. I thought you were 3 years old, there. It’s a rather childish plot, which fits the twist. Nice job tricking us.
Icalasari wrote:
Sarah already notified me about that this morning. I would have never thought that you can’t translate “glauben dir alles” like that.
…..What?
Definitely didn’t see this coming, but, in hindsight, there was no better way to wrap this up. Darn good job, that’s all I have to say.
i never expected THAT to happen…hehehe… nice work…
THERE WAS NO MONSTER!
Heh, I’ve been reading long enough that I can tell you planned this ahead. It doesn’t even seem like it came out of nowhere since you did hint earlier. Nice ending.
I knew that cutie couldn’t really be a bad guy. lol Yay it was all fake!! lol
I’m imagining the “final scene” involves Larissa making out with Cloud…hero has to get the girl right?
@ Nanoth:
Ahhh, the Canon GL2, where would amateur shlock films be without you?
Kind of weird and “dissapointing”, as everyone says by now, but certainly gotta love it.
You expect me to belive they being filming since the beggining?
the talk about drug dealers was fake?
Im sorry but I dont Buy It. It dont explain were is the turn of events, It doesnt give clues of what is happening (making a movie) only About what isnt happening (the fake heart attack etc…)
I study Scripts and I can tell a lose ending when I see it, generally Twists have an effect so the audience get traped in the argument or mad at the film/story/comic. This ending is just a disapointment.
There are no marks, no clues or whatever that tell us this is a movie.
ITS GOOD THOUGH that all this wasnt real, but the “Movie Thing” to justfy It is lame
Also people isnt stupid, they would belive in the blair witch proyect but no in godzilla for obvious reasons (perspective point of view etc..). So a fragment on youtube would be belived but not a movie that have a third person point of view, some of this says that you dont know about film Making. BUT the premise that the people think they are in front of real thing (and not just a projection on a screen is true), a motion picture is trated as fake, but if you use Documentary metod people would belive you (Land Without Bread, a tottally fake documentary that tricked everyone)
PLEASE DONT HIDE THIS COMMENT any impartial person would critic this plot, dont be overwhelmed by the praise of inconditional fans, you dont need It, as a writer Im not saying that the plt twist are bad, just that if used wrongly they dont have the same efect.
@ avatarjk137: