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"All were attentive to the godlike man, When from his lofty couch he thus began:" -- Vergil Marksman's quirky, fiercely independent characters have been a staple of the FPL community for about as long as anyone can remember. Rounding out his FPL career are a few ME wins, and Ultimate Victory in the Contest of Champions, Marks has served in many admin positions and contributed to FPL continuity many times over. He takes a few moments to answer a few questions with his own memorable, if sometimes irascible wit. ThreeDark and DragonFang sit in on the interview, and do a bit more editorializing than I'm comfortable with. ;) Abdiel Hi Marks, thank you for taking time out of your day to answer a few questions. * DragonFang shines a bright light in Marks' eyes DragonFang if you do what we say, you wont get hurt Marksman I was the one that begged you. I have no life. But I get ratings. Like a naked Britney Spears. * DragonFang shudders in horror Marksman But, thanks for having me. Abdiel So... which character of yours do you feel is your "greatest success," and why? Marksman Greatest success or greatest in being well done? Abdiel Whichever you feel is more important to you. Marksman The more important character to me is Xerathis who only got 6 wins before being tossed like a salad. My most successful was Whisper and his replacement... All-Father. Abdiel What about Xerathis made him stand out, for you? Marksman Xerathis was great because he allowed me to just let loose with all the one liners I've had stored in my skull since I was 5. That, and he just had this aura of "Cool" about him that had a lot to do with the idea of an angelic snide hitman. Abdiel So charisma is an important consideration for you when you make your characters? Marksman Oh definitely. I have to feel something for them or it's not fun. I have to love them or hate them or something else extreme. Indifference is deadly. That's why you'll never see me making any angsty goth characters any time soon ;) * DragonFang thought you were an angsty goth character Marksman Bah. Only when brooding about my love life, Sam. DragonFang :) Abdiel Aside from that, what do you feel distinguishes a "good" character from a "great" one? Marksman Hmmm... Good characters bring out a great idea and shine a light on it. Lamentable Construct comes to mind. Great characters take that light and turn into a death ray of pure entertainment. They take that great idea and treat it with well written bios, and a strong power combo. And a polarized personality as well. Abdiel Speaking of "great" characters, could you try and pick out an FPL top Three for us? All time. Marksman Best 3 would be Mr. Graves because I despise him, Perni because I'm in awe of him, and Captain Soda Pop because he had style. Strangely enough, those 3 characters were all in at the same time. Abdiel For the benefit of a newbie who doesn't really remember Capt Soda Pop (me), what about him gave him this elusive "style" you mention? Marksman Captain Soda Pop was pure pulp comic fare which really set off my Captain America fetish alarm, and still managed to satiate my love for all things Maniacal. A really great example of Golden Age FPL. DragonFang Marks, do you feel that at the current stage, the FPL(AoC) is at a high peak or a low? Marksman Medium plateau. There's a lot of bad characters, and there are quite a few good ones. Invention creates new culture for the FPL, and the good and the bad all depend on public opinion after all. I haven't said anything contraversial yet. Give me a hard question. Abdiel I know you've done and are doing some writing for Comics. Any work of yours we could pick up anywhere? Any underrated books you want to recommend for our Comic fans out there? Marksman I'm actually pitching a short story entitled "How The Emperor Got His Groove Back" for an anthology mag called D.I.Y. by Iron Horse. The best comic you're not reading is The Adventures of Barry Ween: Boy Genius. And, if you're reading it, you're not reading it enough. On my work, also, I and Josh (3D) are working on self-publishing a book called 4 Dukes if we must. We need an interior artist like Bush needs a good blow to the head too. Abdiel As a counterpoint to this "style" you speak of, could you give us an example of a character you feel is overrated, or has undeserved popularity despite its lack of style? Marksman Overrated? Hmmm, Make an Enemy Day on the Price is Right. Bryn's a great guy, but I NEVER understood the love of Bob. Gloomy prissy boy nightmare giver causes trouble... Yawn. But once again, Bob doesn't polarize me. Abdiel What are your feelings on accusations of Elitism and snobbery on the part of some FPL vets in recent times? Marksman Elitism? I've got something to admit here. I've masqueraded as a newbie two times now to test if Elitism really did exist. My first time around didn't work because I accidentally told quite a few people that I was masquerading. Chat does that sometimes. My second time, as The Cynic, came up with some weird answers. Abdiel Such as? Marksman My first character, Jason Corseau, bombed. Totally bombed. This happened even when I tried some really experimental ideas like having losses and wins for the character mean something. The newbie case for elitism seemed strong. The second, Marius Rane: Kinda Wanted, made the Elims but lost at 6 wins. The same can be said for the third, Sundown as well. ThreeDark Burn baby Burn! Abdiel So do you feel these characters would have done worse or better had you released them as Giant Panda Attack? Marksman My conclusions were that I either was very inconsistent, or the elitism thing only goes so far, but does exist. * DragonFang thinks that EVERYONE is inconsistent * Storyteller sniffles at Toc and RA's failure Marksman I think creativity can only take you so far. After that, it's all popularity. But, the same can be said for popularity only taking you so far without creativity. Abdiel Popularity of the character in question, or popularity of the creator? * DragonFang fails to have either and burns ThreeDark Popularity Sucks Donkey Hoof Marksman Popularity of the creator. Elitism does exist to an extent. It always will in a democratic voting system. DragonFang DOWN WITH DEMOCRACY! Marksman Yes, up with despotism! Abdiel Bearing that in mind, what advice do you have for the newbies out their trying to make their first successful character? Marksman Go in chat. It's the smartest thing you can do. Make connections, get people to look at your ideas, and get feedback. Abdiel Even if you piss everyone off in chat? ;) Marksman Don't suck up. DragonFang Indeed Marksman Unless it's to me - I like sucking up. DragonFang And beware of the Dragon, he bites. Marksman Just be nice and normal to the people in chat. We like people. ThreeDark Normal? Marksman Well, not normal. That's just impossible. DragonFang Heheheh Marksman Not only will our feedback help you with the creativity part, but, honestly, people will vote for you more likely if they know you and like you. But, be nice. Get them ticked at you, and you turn into a Crinos where, even when he makes good characters, people vote against him. Abdiel Anyway... what's your take on the groups you've participated in during your FPL career? (COMING and the New Management MH come to mind, for me ;) Marksman Groups... Collaborations... The COMING... I like about half of the COMING. Abdiel Heh, as people or as characters? Marksman The half I like as characters are not neccessarily the half of people I like. * AbdInterviewing nods ThreeDark Josh isn't in that group :P Marksman Tony's a great guy, but Nyght gets annoying. The revamped MH had it's bright spots. I loved Thras. Best of the lot. Abdiel thanks ;) Marksman Better than even Nexus. And I'm egotistical * Storyteller coughs *Brownnose* Abdiel Any others come to mind? Marksman Trauma was great. Loved the super speed, brutality issue. Sonic Hunter's non-character which was pretty much a shared idea between myself and Abby was good. Overall, the team was a great idea. I just didn't give as many resources as I had wanted to. Abdiel So, will you participate in the newest COMING wave? Any other characters coming up you'd like to give us a sneak preview of? Marksman I will most likely be entering a Jono/Jonathan Tragedy hybrid that Josh is drawing right as we chat. Right, Josh? :) ThreeDark Yes, he will. (:< Marksman And, I'd also like to point out Whisper and Angie Blackfeather's daughter, Castiliae, who first appeared in the Apocalypse fic will be appearing as an adult in the near future Abdiel ah, excellent ThreeDark Woohoo! Marksman She'll be the Avatar of Creation actually, so I'll make something likeable out of Whisper yet Abdiel Any IC accompaniment to Castiliae? Marksman That whole Avatar shabang that has so many members it gets confusing is involved. ThreeDark It gets worse when you get into things like Chaos... MWAHAHA! *Shuts up* Marksman But, I'll probably write an intro fic for her if I ever get off of my butt. I think Castiliae is like the polar opposite of Quietus, but I may be wrong. If she is, I'd better make her dang well written. Abdiel Are there any dream matchups (between characters separated by time or chance) you wished had happened, or wish will happen sometime in the future? Marksman I'd love to see Perni vs. Nexus. That'd destroy like 99% of Khazan on a good day. ThreeDark Heehee DragonFang but we want 110% destroyed Marksman As for other characters, I'd like to see Quietus vs. Mr. Graves. Abdiel What do you think of the new changes to the system in FPL "AoC" v3.0? Marksman Kits are neat, but I will NEVER be caught dead using a Senshi kit. Senshi = mini skirt to me. Abdiel If there was one thing you could change about the system, what would it be? Marksman I want quotes back. Thor works so much better if you visualize one of the guys from Pulp Fiction swearing in Norse and blowing some poor fool's brains out... Abdiel What's your opinion on the whole Heromachine thing? Marksman They're the best Ska band in town. * Storyteller laughs Abdiel Heh, how about the graphics program? Marksman Hero Machine the graphics program really allows for creativity. It's just a sad fact that a lot of people who use it, have little to none to begin with. * DragonFang grins Marksman If I ever see some character with wings and some crappy cape again, it will be too soon. Fan's character Ember used it pretty well, but then, Fan has creativity to fall back on. Abdiel When you vote on any given match, what's the first thing you look at, and if it's not the same thing, what is the most important? Marksman I vote based on which character strikes me more. I don't care about powers at this stage of my creative life. Abdiel If you could eliminate one person on this planet and get away with it, who would it be? * Storyteller hides Marksman The guy who is personally stopping me from being a billionaire. And, thanks to chaos theory, there has to be one guy doing it. * DragonFang loves Chaos Theory Abdiel Just who do you think you are, anyway? ;) Marksman If he has to have a name, let's call him Nate Abdiel Are there any questions you wished I had asked? Marksman "Are you available? Because I know quite a few girls around southern Illinois who are single." * Storyteller laughs * DragonFang wishes Marksman hadn't cooperated * DragonFang puts away his torture implements Abdiel If I look up "Sexy Bitch" in the dictionary, what will I see? Marksman A pic of me and John. John being behind me. Because that's the way of things. Abdiel Okay, I'm spent. Any last words for the masses of the FPL? Marksman You should all exist in a state of normlessness. Pull your pants down and run through the streets declaring ANOMY! For, you do not fear the norms that don't affect you. Abdiel Thanks, Marks, it's been a pleasure DragonFang It has? Marksman That, and It's not my fault I didn't get asked anything controversial Marksman Like about my discussions with Mr. Graves Marksman Or my relationship with Landon :) Abdiel heh ThreeDark Chaos! Chaos! Previous Rants |
