Re-introductions
Greetings everyone! As you may know by now, I am Carlos. Some of you may know me as C-Prime, AKA that one dude that keeps making Natalie fan art. Well, from now on, I will be the artist and writer of The Melvin Chronicles! Being a huge fan of CD’s work with I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle over the years, as well as a novice freelance illustrator from Venezuela, it’s a huge honor for me to have the opportunity to work on a webcomic that forms part of a world and characters that I have grow to love over the years.
I am hugely thankful to CD for giving me the chance to work on my first webcomic, and also to Robert, who generously has offered me his help to edit the comic from now on. So you can expect the same high level of grammar quality on MC that you see at JB or SS.org!
I am really exited to start this new journey in the world of webcomics, and I hope you all enjoy what I have planed for the future of the story.
I am sure that a lot of you have many question in regards the state and future of the Chronicles. As exited as I am for this, I understand we are coming from some hard times and some of you may have hoped for the comic to resume it’s run in other circumstances with more familiar faces. So feel free to use the comments section of this page to ask as many questions as you may have. As long as the answers don’t reach spoiler territory, I will do my best to answer them.
With that said, in our last post, our commenter Ben already asked an important question: “How much, if any, of the original character plans will be transitioned into the story?” Well, some of you may not like this answer, but as much as I would like to respect Bach-Mann’s original vision for the story, the truth is, we don’t know what his plans for the story were. In many respects I am starting from zero here, with only a few notes in regards a very specific plot I can’t share with you yet. I will do my best to honor the characters and stories that Bach-Mann introduced, but the truth is that I know as much in regards these characters and stories as any of you. In many respects, I will have to rewrite them in my own style. So I hope you can understand.
None the less, words are not enough to describe how happy am I to work on this project, and can’t wait to share it with all of you! So be ready for August 30th, when the Chronicles will finally start once again!
Hey, dude! Thanks for taking over here! I have a question for you that hopefully avoids spoilers: is there a time skip involved in your storyline, or are we going to pick up at Snack to the Future right after Kazom sensing a genie dying (the last story comic, IIRC)? Anyway, good luck!
You’re welcome! In regards your question, we are not picking up the story from where it was left, that’s all I can say for now, sorry for the tease 🙂
I like a tease. 😉
@Carlos – ah, thank you for the answer. A follow-up, if you will permit – how involved will you be with CD regarding story points? I ask because, at one point, IDoaJB and MC were supposed to be very connected in regards to the Blue Djinn storyline, and I was just curious whether or not the two of you would keep in touch regarding any story points that would affect both the Melvin gang in California and JeaNeil over in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Anyway, best of luck, dude! Can’t wait for more!
@He Who Abides – ok, for the most part both JB and MC are their own independent stories, just as before, in fact, I know as much of the JB storylines as any of you, and even Robert has the power to torture me with teases of the future now.
My contact with CD consist in sharing with him my work in progress and some ideas to make sure nothing I make can affect the lore of JB the wrong way, I also may ask him questions about such lore and what I can use or add for my plot, but thats it.
With that said, and after the recent cameo of Kazom at JB, I do have some notes in regards how the Blue Djinn plot is involved here, but I can’t tell any of it yet 😉
Now, I want to take this moment to make clear that if you see me commenting and giving my own theories at the JB sites in regards CD’s plot, I mean it, I am just another reader sharing his opinions and ideas, I don’t have more info in regards CD’s plot of JB than any of you.
Hey man, thanks so much for jumping back into things- I was worried for a while that I’d never get to go back to the misadventures of Melvin and the crew. All the best, and good luck 🙂 I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Cheers <3
Thanks,I was also worried to never see this characters again, it took me a while to have the courage to actually step up and try to take the story myself, but as I said, now I am truly exited to work in this project!
Love seeing Melvin & Co back again! Good job!
Tiny edit – In Red’s bubble: “WHIT” -> “with”
Thanks, is great to see some of the old readers coming back to the site!
And you are also right, it should be “with”, I will make sure to get that fix a soon I have a chance!
I don’t envy you having to piece the story threads from Bachmann together. Not even I know what was going through his head about most of it. My advice would be to do what you need to do to make an interesting story, including cutting some things, retconing, or even rebooting. But whatever you do I know it will be fun to read. Looking forward to August 30th. 🙂
Is good to see you here and I am glad to hear you are looking forward for my work.
My intentions are to honor all the work that came before me, both the one you work with, as well as Bachmann’s general work, but as I said, I am about to introduce my own touch to the existing plot and add my own stories from now on as well. I just hope you all enjoy what I have planned for the Chronicles!
Looking forward to where you take this, Carlos 🙂
I’ve been missing this comic.
Hi Carlos,
Thanks for picking the series up. I look forward to seeing where you take the story and to the introduction of more beautiful ladies. Or maybe just more adventures with Holly.
Best of luck with it.
Welcome Carlos!
I am sure that you will do a wonderful job at continuing the Melvin Chronicles!
I am excited to see where you take it – I will faithfully follow…
I’m glad The Melvin Chronicles will be continued even if Bach-Mann never found his way back. Good luck with your new position as writer and illustrator. I only have one question as of right now. There were some really obvious character relations in the work done by Bach-Mann (BC). Will these be continued in any way with your work on the comic?
I intend to acknowdledge and work with all the plot points in the story so far, even if it takes some time to work some of them out, but as I said, having no knowledge as to what the original plan was for the story, I can’t promise that the relationships you speak of will play out the way they were intended or as you were expecting.
It may not be the answer that you and some of the old readers want to heard, but I want to be honest on this regard.
I can respect that. I had some theories for what was planned with Red. For example if the spike in magic that one agent noted was related to her (I mean everyone else has a secret magical legacy they are unaware of) or Ida or a false positive caused by residual magic on her. But you take her where you want to go.
For the record my crazy ass guess was that she was a hiden heir to a magical matriarchy and that’s why her parents always wanted a girl. (Hence the shirts saying Princess, and the way she jokingly called her mom “the Queen” was a type of foreshadowing)
Heck when someone made a joke about Ida having Far ancestry do her purple eyes I even looked up fae eye color on a whim, turns out green eyes are asssociated with faes too.
FAE NOT FAR
Interesting I did some name meaning research for fun ONE of the name meanings of Tiffany is Manifestation OR Apperane of God, and Ida is apparently the name of a Nyph who took care of Zeus. This is PROBABLY all a big coincidence but I am thinking if nothing else it makes for great fanfic feul.
When I came up with the name Tiffany it was only because it sounded like the most girlie name I could think of. Ida was all Vik’s creation, and I don’t know what he intended for her beyond her role as Red’s handler.
Like I said probably a coincidence but makes for GREAT fanfic fuel
All I can say is… YAY!!!!!!
Of course one question that has to be asked is: when does this strip start rolling again?
It says so in the last paragraph of the page description: August 30th. We’re waiting a while so that Carlos has a chance to build up a healthy buffer.
I am looking forward to the direction this story is going to take. Keep in mind, story is king, tell a good tale and you will have life long fans. It’s nice to see the comic up and running again.
I see a problem with CD being out of the loop for so long. Back in the late nineties and early 2000s, I wrote one of the longer Sailor Moon fanfic series, and I got a co-writer. It was a disaster; we just could not agree where we were taking each other’s characters. I had to give up an alien invasion, another planet destroyed, and seeing whether Chibi-Usa would finally get a boyfriend who wouldn’t get killed or turn out to be a monster. I managed to punch out one last novella, but that was it.
It sounds like the only way to succeed is to forgo anything that would cause a serious change to the status quo. And there are going to be fans calling you on every change you make to the canon established by Bachman. Are we going with the “It was only a dream?” thing to wipe out a lot of established facts, like Boyd falling for a witch’s familiar, Boyd’s mom being an expert on things occult and mystical, and Holly having powers?
O-Kay, I will try my best not to spoil my own story now, so here It comes.
First, I am sorry to hear of your problems in your Fan Fiction series and your Co-Writter, but I don’t think you have to worry of something like that happening here, again, CD give Bachmann plenty of creative freedom, same with me, but contrary to Bachmann, I don’t work with a co-writer, I am writing the whole story for myself for better or for worse, with Robert helping me editing the grammar and managing the site. And just as I said in another reply, I consult with CD with how far I can go with certain plots, mostly in regards genie lore, but for the most part he leaves me writhe the story as I please.
Now, as I have said multiple times now, I intend to acknowledge the plot so far, all of it, this may feel like a soft reboot for the most part, mostly cause as I said, neither CD nor me knows more of the plot than any of you, and I will have to rewrite the original intend of those plots now, I can only promise that I am doing my best to honor the previous plots, while telling my new story. Believe me, I truly hate the “it was only a dream” trope, so I have NO intention to ignore neither the Imposition nor The Azure Coven, much less the story of Thomas Clarck, is just that it will take some time for me to work some of this stories now.
With that said, lets address some of your doubts in the less spoilery way possible:
– BJ is still in love with Clamour, among other things.
– Mrs Johnsons still owns mystic-antiquities, and that’s all I can say about it.
– Finally, and this is the big one, as far as I can tell, there is no real evidence that Holly have, or ever had powers or any knowledge of magic, if you are referring to this page:
https://melvin.jeaniebottle.com/?comic=imagination-is-the-only-weapon
I am afraid that the dialogue during and after the scene, plus the “bubble” effect on Holy’s head seems to indicate that the maze in Holly’s hands is just her toothbrush and she is just half asleep, dreaming about the games of role she usually plays. As I said, neither Melvin, nor Kazom mention the maze at any moment, and in future pages Melvin is only concern of what he did to Holly and how much she remembers about it, none a single mention of her having any powers. I really don’t want to negate nor confirm any fan theory, but this is an exception cause I see that some readers got the impression that Holly had magic powers just like you did, and now being the new writher, I never saw any hard evidence about it, so, I am sorry but I am not working under that impression, I didn’t ever think of the matter until you bring that up to my attention, and now I prefer to deny this theory before someone thinks I am forgetting about it, or retconning this part of the story.
I understand if you and other readers have their doubts, I expected as much when I accepted this project in it’s current state, but I just hope that you can give a chance to this new run of the story now.
I hope you continue that plot thread about the girl that has a crush on Red.
So my question is whether we should read the pages leading up to your tenure as the comic’s writer. I kind of stopped reading the comic really early on. I mean I probably will but how essential is it going to be moving forward?
Well, I would recommend to read all of the previous run, at the end of the day I am still continuing the story so far, though I am working to reintroduce all the characters and the plot so far, including links to all direct references for anyone who did read the previous run but doesn’t remember everything after all this time. So, in theory is posible to start reading the new pages without reading the previous run, but still, I will recommend not only to read all the story so far, but also give the original Melvin story in “I Dream of a Jeanie Bottle” another read, cause my plot is taking elements of both stories and there is so much we can do with just the links.
I hope you don’t ignore that Red still seems attracted to girls, specifically specifically Ida. Red even talked about how hot it was watching Ida change.
I also hope we see more of Saachi’s crush on Red