Comments on: Crossover (complete)

By: Mark V.

Mark V. — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:26:54 +0000

Great idea! For people who want to take a crack at making a cruciverbicomic but are having trouble coming up with a filled crossword grid, I’ve written an automatic crossword generator, available at http://eptcomic.com/eptcross.htm

The page also includes 600 randomly generated crosswords for people who don’t want to download the program.

Thanks for coming up with this, and congratulations on the sweet execution.

By: T Campbell

T Campbell — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:08:48 +0000

@EarlofSandwich, first I blocked out the *general idea* of the story, and subdivided the plot into page units as usual. At this point I knew how it would start, the silent sequence in the middle, and how it would end. I knew it’d be a Hilda-focused story, naturally, and her chance to confront demons both literal and metaphorical. Plus, I’d been meaning to do a Wordplay riff in Fans since introducing her character.

Then I made the crossword grid. I wasn’t totally sure what words would be useful where, so I filled it with geek references that are often entertaining for the Fans to use, character names, and things I thought *might* work even if I wasn’t sure quite how. I did have to change the “southeast wing” of the grid later, but just a little.

And then I dialogued. You got to let the characters drive the dialogue, but you can “massage” what they’re saying somewhat, and it wasn’t TOO hard to find ways to keep the right letter at the beginning of each panel. I started out by doing some free-association about the words that needed to be in the story, and came up with connections like Wheaton’s Law.

The toughest word to fit in there was definitely “ado,” which isn’t really a word that’s natural conversation for any of the Fans. “Much ado about” gets a little more play, but it took me forever to think of a clever-sounding variation on that. Probably the second-hardest was “Lion-O,” which had seemed like a good bet at the time.

By: EarlofSandwhich

EarlofSandwhich — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:19:44 +0000

Wow. T. “This is impressive” or “that blew me away” doesn’t quite cut it. I’m not sure I have any other words than half sentences and stuttering amazement, though.

I am quite extremely curious how this idea came about and was executed. Did you start out the the crossword or the story or what in mind to end up with this? with this in mind or how did this come up. Very original and great.

Also really good to see Hilda return to old form and then some. Great arc.

By: Cavatica

Cavatica — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:11:10 +0000

Wow, this is pretty awesome. I like that we were “told” what this was in 6 of 12.

By: Mary Tee

Mary Tee — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:52:42 +0000

This explains a lot of the confusing references, I was wondering why the writing style had changed so much… lol.
Verrah clever.

By: Cory

Cory — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:13:59 +0000

Wow T that’s pretty awesome

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:00:04 +0000

I missed your explanation and went straight to x.png . . . and I was looking, looking, looking for what connection the comics might have with the grid.

When it finally clicked, I was blown away. That was super-super awesome. Thanks for making this.

By: Ghoti

Ghoti — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:33:08 +0000

That might just be the geekiest thing I’ve ever seen.

…I like it.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:42:20 +0000

holy…crap…

There isn’t words for this. I’m blown away.

By: John A Arkansawyer

John A Arkansawyer — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:52:14 +0000

Wow.