First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lewis Costello, I'm 14 and from Lancashire in the UK. Despite the age, I must admit I'm more of a follower of Neal Adams than I am of John Romita Jr. I'm quite eager to break in to the industry, and have quite a bit of possible work coming up shortly. As well as this, I contemplate self publishing in the near future. That should just about cover the start up. Now for the suck up. This site was advertised on Digital Webbing. I gave it a quick click, and found that it was awesome. That's why I'm here. If this site gets the attention it deserves, ComicSpace must surely have a rival.

Now to clear up regarding my avatar. I am not an incredibly white man with a beard. That avatar is in fact based on a character I created called Mezzanotte, the silent assassin. He wears a white mask with a similar design to the one shown, although he doesn't have a beard... : D      He also wears a tux, and has a gun. But a 'friendly' version of him is fine as well. So there you go. That's about it. If you do read this, please join my site at www.frontierlimited.co.nr were you can find exclusive interviews with Rich Starkings, Dez Skinn, Gene Colan and more to come. Thanks!

Lewis

While we're waiting for Version 2.0 to upgrade to 2.0.1, I thought I'd post what I've been working on for Bob. It's incomplete, and I'd like to get your feedback. 

First, the idea. (Bear it mind all of this could change when the update comes.)

It's still Bob underneath, but in Serenity the SysAdmin protocol suppresses his Guardian protocol -- sort of. You can see parts of his Guardian uniform bleed through the SysAdmin uniform, showing us that it's still him in there.

Similarly, if Matrix or Mouse or even Mike the TV were SysAdmins, parts of their unique style would come through the uniform.

The uniform can be switched off by performing a special reboot, giving Bob the freedom to move about Old Frame and Serenity with ease.

While wearing the uniform, Bob has some of the same powers as the System Keys: he can merge with the glossy white superstructure that pervades Serenity, and the palms of his gloves act like the read/write staff Alt uses. He also has his own SysAdmin powers, stored in the forearm gauntlet things.

Now, your part.

As I said, he's incomplete. I haven't drawn in Glitch or the SysAdmin equivalent of Glitch yet. What do you think of the colour scheme? -- just remember he's a Serenity SysAdmin when he's in this uniform. What sort of powers should he have, as a SysAdmin, and what would they look like?

If you have a painter program, drag this image to your desktop and draw or paint right on top of it, then post a link to your copy in the comments below. If you don't have a paint program, just say what you like and what you would change.

After we posted V1 I started making a list of things that needed changing. I decided to do that again this time around since it proved a popular move... but things haven't gone so smoothly.

No one seems in agreement over what should change in the present version of Arrival! As soon as I see three comments about a specific idea being poor, I get three others from people saying it convinced them to vote for Arrival. It's a very interesting situation.

Furthermore, it seems that most naysayers quickly change their minds once the issues are dragged out into the open and discussed, whereupon it's discovered that the idea can work depending upon "how it's handled."

So where to go from here? There are a bevvy of little tweaks rattling around in my brain, and I've already started implementing them into a new version. But, in reality, V3 is shaping up to be a snugger, slightly better fitting V2. It's a V3 with a V2 engine! Or something...

Sooo... I don't know what the rest of the team thinks yet (it's too late to call them) but I'm thinking I might cool the story jets until the weekend and see what shakes loose. Feelings?

There are, of course, many loose ends I need to tie up (Vector's character, the type of Web Game, why the virals send Vector on the mission, etc) and I'd ideally like to nail those down this weekend. In the meantime...

Smartens is in the process of creating several new glorious designs. Let's sit back and look at his pretty pictures for a moment. I'm tired of words. The new additions should go up throughout the next week. I'll drop a line when they go up.

Thanks to everyone who's been helping us hash out story ideas. Today, I'd like to particularly thank Slackbot, JenKollic, Azalea, LadyLazuli, trgdr777, Aaron, Astragem14, WeBViRuS, TurtleDreamer, Alina, TahaHalwani, Guardian, singingbanana, TurboFool, acrimonious1, Raidensbinome, Haruhi, etoile37, HarbingerN, Guardian Enzo, missMatrix, RandomEXplosion, and BobIsSoHot. They each proposed some killer ideas in this post .

I'd also like to thank the almighty GlitchBob, who recently gave Arrival the ReBoot Revival seal of approval (unofficially, on Java Hut). I guess that means we're a real boy now.

Like the new icon? Steal it if you want.

 Another relationship I enjoyed in the orginal Reboot was between Enzo and Frisket. A boy and his dog.  Give "Bit" a cat in "The Last Gardian" and I'd be much more interested! ;-)

I am a vocal supporter of the Version 2.0 pitch, that is no secret.

It's also not a crime.

Yet in the last two or three days a few posters, some of them vocal supporters of the Arrival pitch, have tried framing the rivalry between the two leading proposals as "nasty" and "petty" -- with all the fault, they smuggly imply, squarely on the 2.0 side.

Is it wrong to have a preference? Only if you prefer the current runner-up, it seems. Z2H is a collaborative site, this is true, and right from the start I asked people to offer constructive criticism instead of badgering the pitches and teams for failing to meet their unrealistic expectations. However, that doesn't mean we can't prefer one idea over another. It also doesn't mean we have to pretend they're all on equal footing, as one poster recently suggested we should.

Try to remember, the point of this experiment isn't to turn 5 pitches into one big amalgamated pitch, it's to elevate one above the rest.

Instead of the neutrality and constructive criticism these posters advocate, they, for reasons known only to them, are permitted to openly state their support for Arrival and pan other pitches, while posters such as myself and Shadowbolt are to be harrassed for supporting 2.0, even in comments for blogs discussing how to improve 2.0!

There is a reason I support 2.0. With the other pitches the only constructive criticism I could offer would be suggesting they be changed entirely, from the ground up, because I don't find them compelling. Would that be a good use of anyone's time, mine to spend writing what would be ignored, or yours to spend reading it? Is it constructive to suggest shades of paint for a house when you wish the floor plan was different?

It's easy to act superior when you think you've won, but it makes you a poor sport just as much as resenting it when you don't win. So could we end the hypocritical hostility and just agree to disagree? You like Arrival, we like 2.0, so what?

Hi. My cousin works at the company who makes this site, And because I'm the big artist in the family he told me to try it.

So anyways, I am a cartoonist who hasn't accomplished much. I'm still in High School So I haven't had much chance. I want to get into both the comic buisness and the animation buisness. I want to draw more realistically but whenever I try it comes outas a cartoon. I am currently working on a webcomic called Skool Sux. And a comic about my character Intense Spence.

Skool Sux and Intense Spence (c) Me

If Arrival can get dibs on a one-episode character, so should we, no?

Anyone remember this character from episode 3x08? Maxine?

http://www.c4vct.com/kym/slachash/transcrp/imax/imax4.jpg

The shining one there.

Did anyone go on that ride? I did. ^_^

But yeah, I think she and her ship (the main part, not the tourist attatchment part) should become part of the 2.0 universe). She has a personality somewhat different from the other ones.

Why would she be there? Simply enough, doing her usual tourist thing, and gets stranded in Mainframe, either by Megabyte (whom DID attack the ship during the IMAX tour), THEN Serenity (perhaps with a tight hold on Net access), or just Serenity itself. That's really all that's necessary, I'd think. Maxine can at first be distant from everyone, just wanting to get out of Mainframe, but once she's able, she could have had enough character development to stay it out.

On a side note; Maxine is a Search Engine, but so is Ray Tracer - however, they have different icons. Reason? I'm guessing rival Search Engine companies? Google vs Yahoo, for example? What if the the reason Maxine gets stuck in Mainframe is due to the competition; meaning, Serenity.OS (much like many nightmare OSs) only supports certain internet capabilities at first? (There was a large amount of time where Windows refused to let me use Firefox) - And as for Ray, he might be one of the supported ones, allowed to come and go, but only stay for a certain amounts of time (ie. getting kicked offline).

Or, hell, you could choose to do the complete opposite, and have Ray there all the time, with Maxine only appearing once in a while. Then again, who really likes Ray all that much? >_>

Anyway, point is, I think 2.0 should get its hands on a character, much like Arrival did with Lens.

DIBS 

Ed Norton is Scripting Hulk Movie.

Anyone remember this critter from episode 3x05?

Large Version: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/60642725/

They never named this one, but I personally thought he was the coolest virus in the whole Reboot series. Hell, hehad the voice of Dinobot from Beast Wars (or so I think)!

A shame he was deleted so quickly - I think he was good enough to last more than that.

So firstly, pretty pictures! Prof.W.W. mentioned a contest for making a Codemaster icon last week. I don't know if it ever got started, but here's my contribution: 

Circle, square, triangle, check! Blatant Illuminati/Stonemason references, check! Codemasters are one big cult-like organisation to me, so this is appropriate.

I was also thinking a lot on the idea of the Codex. I like the general idea of it a lot. It reminds me of ancient religion and philosophy. Gnosis and the Codemasters essentially (in my head) want to define something completely otherworldly and so powerful that it commands awe, terror, and curiosity all at once. The appeal of such power is pretty obvious.

The problem is that while everyone is aware of these otherworldly things (the User, the Code) and could identify it if faced with it, no one can really define how it works or what it truly is because no reference in this world can possibly define it: it's completely outside of normal experience. That's the Gnosis' challenge, one that it's doomed to fail if it thinks that it's already a god going into the process.

There's flaws to this interpretation of the Codex: it doesn't fit well with a good plot. Because it's an undefinable thing, it's easy to end the story with "And then Gnosis goes LOGIC ERROR! LOGIC ERROR! This is not Mainframe. This is Megaframe! and self-implodes!" It's also really metaphysical, which I know can be a big snore for people.  And hell, I may be overanalysing and the Codex isn't supposed to be any of these things.

But can you tell that I like that idea? It's complex, and I'm a sucker for metaphysical things like that. XD

A lot of what else I like and disklike of Arrival's V2 has already been voiced by other people, so I won't go into a long discussion of why I am for or against those things with one other exception.

 Mouse and Ray become the enemy's agents. Okay. But we've done that before. So what's going to be different about Gnosis' control as opposed to what Daemon did? There's a bit more leeway with Ray because he's just standing around in S4. It does work in Ray's favor since if Megabyte and Gnosis AND Ray have this existing interconnection as S4 unfolds, that might explain why he brought him to Mainframe as MegaBob.

I suppose it comes down to how they're going to be used and how the writers will want to reveal that they've been corrupted, either point-black boom there you go it happened, or subtly introducing it. The whole thing is still so Daemon-esque that it doesn't excite me half as much as say, the Web Game. That's a fun twist for Matrix to experience. So yea, my concern over the evil!Mouse/Ray thing is execution so it doesn't come out feeling stale.

This is just a post to draw people's attention towards two excellent blogs. If you're new here I feel these really sum up the current situation.

First of all, I feel not enough emphasis has been put on the fact that we are voting for a pitch for a ReBoot comic book - not a movie or new series. Slackbot's post called The projected path of the ReBoot revival  describes the importance of supporting Zeros to Heroes and the eventual comic.

The second post is Wren's Relevant vs. Entertainment which describes in a nutshell the current split between the two frontrunners. I will add that I like the other pitches too and don't consider them to be out of the competition yet.

 Mind how you go,

 jim