STARK REALITY SUMMARY

So…just what the hell is STARK REALITY anyway?

Its kinda hard for me to describe, I know in my head what’s going on, but as I’ve hardly even begun
on the tip of this iceberg let alone built a definitive universe, I don’t want to explain too much
and spoil some of the surprises in store…

Anyway, I’ll let slip here some of the stuff that I’m pretty sure won’t ruin anything and that you
might just be wondering about…

When is it set?

A long time from now, a few thousand years thereabouts.

So why isn’t everyone floating around and teleporting etc then?

In OUR not too distant future, the worlds population is nearly wiped out through war (More on this later…)
and so humanity pretty much had to start again, this leads to a few different directions being taken by
the next batch of technologically aware humans, which is why you might see a hover car and
nano-technology on one page and then ‘steam punk’ type ‘dirty tek’ on the next.

Where is it set?

The vast majority of stories all take place in the same city, but as this city is very nearly continent
spanning, that still leaves a lot of room for interpretation, there will be stories set on the fringes
and outside the city too, but first I want to establish the city as a character in and of itself. For a
more general answer, the city the stories take place in is located in what we now call Australia,
although if you were to ask most residents of STARK REALITY about that, you’d draw a blank stare!

You kill off a lot of your characters,
why, weren’t you hugged enough as a child?

I was talking about this on a forum not too long ago, here is a long-winded explanation, slightly edited
for context! A main reason for a good chunk of my characters dying is that I want to get out a particular
feel in STARK REALITY. A lot of the stories I pick to do are ones that I feel will help get everyone
seeing the STARK REALITY universe from the perspective I have. A good example is the story Notice, with
the automaton: That story introduced the concept of living pamphlet hand out things, made it seem normal
(In the SR world) so then when you saw it again in the story Big Man, you didn’t need an explanation.
Whereas if the first time you saw it was in Big Man without an explanation, people would wonder what the
hell it was etc. That’s what a lot of my early stories are for: breaking in ideas so that later on my
stranger stories wont be totally alien.

And so, a main reason for my characters dying is that I want you, the reader, to genuinely wonder if
he’s (stories main character etc) going to survive. Something that always pissed me off with a lot of
comics was that there was no real suspense, you KNEW he/she was going to find a way out, so there was no
real drama. I want readers to feel that when I say there is a 50/50 chance he/she wont survive, they
truly BELIEVE there is a 50/50 chance of bad news coming. Unfortunately for my early characters, the
only way to prove I’m serious is a high mortality rate…

But the killings will back off…for example, in the (Small spoilers ahead for those unread in the
archive!) original write of the story Big Man, Pinchy was supposed to be crushed to death by the
security mech in the middle of the street, but I was having such fun drawing him that I put him in a
dumpster instead, so that it was ambiguous as to what had happened, and then sprung him out on the
reader in the surprise epilogue. :D

Some stories are funny and others are anything but,
why such a difference?

Again, I want to bring across as many flavours of STARK REALITY as possible, not every day of my life is
a laugh-fest, but nor are they all hair-tearingly  bad, or pants piddlingly horrific! It all depends on
when I look at one of my previously jotted down ideas/scripts, what kind of mood would best suit it. The
best example off the top of my head would be the story Faces, I doubt I would’ve been able to create that
in a humorous setting. This is why sometimes you may very well see something that doesn’t seem
particularly realistic: whilst I like to try and keep STARK REALITY from getting too far-fetched, some
times the best way to illustrate a point is to exaggerate it a bit. And anyway, if you try and point out
a flaw in my logic, prepare to be met with my favourite line: “I claim artistic licence!” :D

Who are you?

I am BMB. I am Australian. I cannot dance. One day when I have enough readers you will all simultaneously
get the urge to put your foreheads to your monitors, and that’s when I'm going to feast upon your souls!

*Cue manic laughter*

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!