Group Anthrax

When a wave of blue light traversed the globe, the first thought of many was that it was an attack of some sort. But when the results were stranger than any attack, individuals would need to band together as they themselves, and the world, changed.

So this was the first comic with an actual storyline I tried to produce. I posted it from November 2005 to May 2009. One time, someone told me that people called our high school friend group "Group Anthrax" because "The entire school could get anthrax, and we would keep laughing and joking." I loved that idea, and stole the name for this comic...which was meant to be about a group of friends banding together in the face of worldwide transformations. Eh, we almost sorta got there.

Chapter 1, Page 27

January 26, 2018 - 10:50 PM

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR LOSER BLISTER, TSUKI. WHY DID I DRAW HIDEYORI AS ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN THE LOSER BLISTER? ARRRRGH!!! *flips table*

I mean, "Yes, that is an excellent way to show this concept, past me. Yes. Surely it is."

Okay, so because we never got to it: The thing that was happening wasn't that Tsuki's developing a healing factor. That would make sense, but she isn't. But Omega Z is developing blood-mage abilities. EVERYONE was gonna have powers. Like, the plan wasn't everyone in the world to develop powers, though come to think of it, that might've made for a better way to explore the themes I was trying to explore, when I wasn't throwing in piles of inside jokes and not knowing what pacing is. But our cast was all going to be powered, and there were going to be some significant physical transformations as well. And, let's be real, the cast for this was essentially, "All my high school friends, yay." Which, I like the themes. I like some of the ideas. With a few exceptions I don't write characters that are based on my friends anymore BECAUSE of this project.

Let's be real: I put my friends through a lot of shit organizing this project. I wrangled them together for planning meetings, they had to deal with my ass agonizing over this thing nonstop, and there was a lot of drama between us. And then, over the course of a few years in college, we drifted apart and weren't friends anymore. Which still sucks. But yeah.

I've said it before, but the driving concept of Group Anthrax was that worldwide, people start spontaneously transforming into what they really are inside, whatever that happened to be; and through this, a group of friends who've bonded into their own sort of family come together tighter, and have a lot of fun through it all. I had my ideas and backstory for my own avatar character, and then pitched to all my friends the question of, "If you were anything, what would you be?" And I got a lot of cool, interesting ideas and characters. And I got interest, which was my intent. What's the quickest way to get someone invested in a story? Get them involved in it, and give them stakes. I wanted my friends to have a say, and a stake. But I usually didn't communicate what I was doing or thinking well.

I had a ton of fun getting together with people and doing story sessions, and podcasts, and stuff. That sort of stuff is some of my favorite kind of thing to do. Yeah, we had a podcast. Barrel Rolls and Pettiness, the Codpast. I'm sure I have the old files archived on my external. It probably wasn't very good, but it was ours. Buuut...I went to college six hours away. Five, if you drive 80 mph the whole way and don't get caught. And those friendships suffered. And, frankly, I suffered. I was horribly alone, and there was always drama. Plenty of it, I caused. But...it made Group Anthrax really painful to work on. It was about people I missed, horribly. People fought, and I was agonized by my own slow production. I kept trying to re-capture the feeling I'd had with these people when I could see and hang out with them every day, and I was chronically aware of how much that wasn't the case anymore. And I was shy, and was having a ton of trouble coming out of my shell enough to show people who I really was, and make some real friends. It sucked, and it was hard, and Group Anthrax really didn't help. I'm sad I never got to the real story, and I'm sad for all the social shit that happened. I'm still glad I started it, but man, is GA a tough one to talk about, sometimes.

;tldr; Omega Z was basically gonna be a blood-bender, with a bit more magic. Okay, kinda entirely not a blood-bender. He was gonna have blood magic. So, his desire to help his friend made her wounds close. Yanno, with scabs. Which are partially congealed blood.