But what if… the writer tried to convey those within these “precious pages,” rather than shunting responsibility for the backstory to a text dump in the introduction? Part of good writing is accomplishing your goals within the limitations of your context and form, and that device has always struck me as a bit of an easy out.

@Adan: Cast my vote for more indie stuff being covered in BAAPPAS. Your Marvel/DC snark/commentary is often a fun read, but I found this edition way more interesting. If you want creator feedback, you can always review one of Slott’s books and suggest people save their money and download it!

Hear, hear! Kudos to you sir, for such a sentiment. One wonders why more creators don’t follow suit. Also, perhaps I’m just a bit slow on the uptake, but I’ve always enjoyed opening spiels. Not just for the quick infodump so that I’m not lost during the opening panels (or reels or paragraphs or what have you), but also because they quickly put me in the mood to enjoy what I’m about to consume. I’m the reason movie companies put the trailer of the movie on the same disc; I watch the trailer before I watch the movie so that I’m in the proper mood to watch the movie. I get to anticipate a little longer, too. So, if a referendum on opening spiels gets put out tomorrow, I’m voting yes.

On an unrelated note, I think the Coach and I should do more creator-owned books here on BAAPPAS. I like it when the creators come on and give their two cents, something big-shot “name” creators rarely do outside their own gilded (and fortified) webpages and forums.

But that was meant as a seperate rant and as I said I look forward to the continuation of this story.

Just thought I’d spend my two pennies’ worth on this whole “expositionary text” debate:

When Fraze and I first started putting Gutsville together, the one thing we absolutely did NOT want to do was patronise our readers. We feel we’ve been scrupulous about avoiding some of the pitfalls we’ve seen in other “world-creating” stories: pages and pages of dull exposition lumped-in with the story, that laud the brilliance of a High Concept and conveniently forget to progress the plot in any way.

That wasn’t for us. We’re interested in telling a tale about some interesting people in a very strange situation, not about how bloody clever we are for coming up with a concept higher than a Hollywood Exec’s first nostril-load of the day.

So, why the intro text?

Well: because it doesn’t tell you anything you don’t – or at least should – already know. That blurb essentially repeats (in a more characterful voice, hopefully) precisely what was stated in the solicitation text that accompanied issue #1. We don’t have the luxury of a back-cover blurb, to hook casual browsers, so we figured we’d use the inside cover for the same.

It surprises me that a couple of you mention you’ve had to rely upon that same chunk of text to explain what’s going on in the first issue. To be brutally honest there’s far more explanatory information carefully buried throughout the issue itself than you’ll get from that crude splat of prose at the start, and – happily – it seems the vast majority of readers are picking up on it all.

Like I said, we’re absolutely not into patronising our readers. Nor are we into giving them a decompressed ride which can be quickly skimmed-through without missing a beat. We want to challenge you, folks. We want every word you read to mean something, and every picture to spill a thousand more. You’re paying for this stuff, dammit! The least you should expect is value for money!

There is no reason why a block of text at the beginning of your book equals “bad writing.” None whatsoever. This is as much an economic consideration as it is a storytelling one. There is no reason why someone should be forced to spend precious pages explaining the world one has created when these pages would be better used actually telling a story. Your myopic views on how stories can be told are greatly disturbing.

Also, you’re telling me only Star Wars used it correctly and not Empire or Jedi? Ridiculous.

Unless the year is 1977 and your exposition is scrolling upwards over a background of stars, this is not really a good idea.

Sorry bro, but Brendan is correct: the old maxim of “show, don’t tell” is especially true when you’re dealing with a half-visual medium! If you feel that you can’t start the first issue of your comic without a big block of exposition telling the story of your story, maybe you need to write a better script. Or be a better writer. Whichever!