Deshi! Deshi! Bashara! Bashara! Important stuff!

Welcome to yet another one of Koobismo's weekly updates, where I'm - as always - overexcited about some stuff and trying desperately to excite you too! Since I'm still full of myself after releasing Episode 30 (finally!), let me open up by asking you to: a) check it out if you haven't done so yet koobismo.deviantart.com/art/Ma… and b) place your sexy vote (am I the only person out there who finds polls hot?) in our "who's the Second Catalyst" poll: koobismo.deviantart.com/journa…

Now, let me just jump to a few things that I'd like to cover in this update...

1. You are an awesome group of people and I love you.

I've been browsing around all the comments you guys have made in the last few days, trying to reply to at least most of them and - to my excitement - have discovered a really awesome thing... In the last few weeks the interactions between all of you have just skyrocketed. Readers are asking questions and receiving detailed answers from other readers, our voice actors are prowling for comments opinionating their work, the wonderful girls and gents that this comic is aimed at are speculating like crazy, exchanging ideas and helping each other out... And I can't even express how much I love that - it makes me all tingly, and fuzzy, and warm inside.

I was asked recently whether or not the Marauder Shields readers would call themselves a "community" - and I really wasn't sure how to answer that, as I usually don't like dragging people into tags and titles they haven't signed up for... And, yeah, even though it sounded cool, I never looked at what we're doing here in that way (although I've heard about a "Marauder Shields community" before). I now know how to reply to such tricky questions... Hell yeah, and it's a rockin' and fantastic community, Good Sir. So, from the bottom of my heart: thank you to everyone who takes time to comment, answer questions, dig up my old replies and to show the world that we're really together on this here ship.

And if you'd like to tell us about yourself, to give me and the others something to associate with your nick (aside from your DA profile information, which I am creeping through reguralily, muahaha!) - be sure to do so in the comments. I'd love to know you closer and to nod at you every time you come around, like good ol' pals do. No pressure if you don't want to, of course, just sayin'.

2. Question of the week: what about the Leviathan DLC?

As you all probably know by now, BioWare has announced the "Leviathan" Single Player DLC, which is supposed to add little bits of information about the Reaper origins story, explaining where they come from and (supposedly) why were they created in the first place. This obviously creates a problem for us, as I've planned the Reaper origins to the very letter back in March, making sure that we come back to the lovecraftian feel they carried with them back in Mass Effect 1. Up until this point (as seen in our "Explaining Marauder Shields", urm, infographic fav.me/d59hpnn - check it out if you haven't already), Marauder Shields was compatible with everything happening in Mass Effect 3 up until the very finale. I'd like to keep that going, but won't do so if it means sacrificing the spirit or the thick atmosphere of our own Reaper backstory...

In other words: I will check out "Leviathan", analyze it obsessively and then either cast aside or incorporate it into MScanon. Either way - I am not giving up on the backstory I've prepared for the Reapers, it either stays unchanged or will be slightly course-corrected to fit the official canon, as seen in the upcoming DLCs.

3. I adore the "Finding Shepard" Mass Effect point & click game. And you should too.

A brilliant and incredibly talented gal going by the name of Nightfable (who, as I've learned recently, is also a fan of the Marauder Shields comics!) is working on a fan-made Mass Effect point & click adventure game, following the post-ending adventures of Jack, trying to find a way to the Citadel to rescue Shepard. The project looks amazing, reminding me of games such as "Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis" and "The Dig" (as well as many others) - two titles I simply adored and kept playing over and over again for around half of my life.

As everyone checking up with my twitter www.twitter.com/koobismo knows, I'm supporting this project with my whole heart - and you should too. It's yet another example that Mass Effect fans are one the coolest people in the gaming world, that we are able to bring a lot of love and talent to the table... And that when we say that something wasn't good or complete enough - we may not be just talking out of our asses, Mr. Moriarty.

The game will feature Jack, Miranda, Wrex, Kasumi and Hackett, and will receive as much support from the Marauder Shields team as Nightfable wants - I have already confirmed that Natalie Loftus (our Jack, Miranda and Kasumi, amongst others) will provide her stunning voice acting skills for the project, and I'm hoping that both Matt "Calavera" O'Connor and StephanosRex will appear in the game as well (which is likely, seeing how awesome they both are).

You can learn more about the project, see the first screenshots and show your support at the Adventure Game Studio forums, here: www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/… - I've already seen and played the pre-Demo build and I give it nine big kisses on the cheek and a pat on the bottom.

4. The Dark Knight Rises.... And so should you!*

This one will be short. I don't usually bother other people with movie recommendations (at least not too often), since my mum always taught me that imposing my cinematic taste unto others is an easy way to get my ass kicked (so I was a nerd growing up in a completely unnerdy enviroment, so what)... BUT if you haven't yet seen The Dark Knight Rises, do so. There are people who will dislike it, there are people who will hate it, but I personally find it not only fun, not only impressive, but also a well written and presented story, which closes up Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy in a most satisfying and multi-layered way... This is how trilogies should end, in my opinion. And if you dislike it to the point where you'd like to punch my face in for making this recommendation, always remember: I can't make comics if I don't see what I'm doing, and I can't see what I'm doing if my nose grows any bigger. Deshi! Deshi! Bashara! Bashara!

Oh, and one more thing - check out the latest song by Miracle of Sound (who is also a fan of my lil' comic! Yaay!), to which I've been chair dancing in the last few days: www.escapistmagazine.com/video… - "Rise"... Yummies. Oh, and if you like it as much as I do, be sure to buy a copy at Bandcamp, here: miracleofsound.bandcamp.com/ - Gavin has had a pretty lousy last month and could use some love from his fans.

*Rise... From yer chair! Bumm-tss

5. The Scraps.

Here's another example of how big a genius I really am - after using DeviantArt for, like, eons, I finally found out that there's a little function called "Scrapbook" where you can put all the little things, sketches, memes and funny one-pieces that you don't think are good enough to find their way into your main gallery. Easily excitable as I am, I ran to tell a friend who's been around DeviantArt for a month now and was shot down by a cold, cold stare and a question I will not repeat, but tell you that it contained the words "really", "didn't know", "make of yourself", "big ass", "technological momentum" and a few hundred implied question marks.

Anyhoo, you can access my shiny new Scrapbook from the level of the main gallery (there's a little "Scrapbook" link by the search field - huh) or by following this link: koobismo.deviantart.com/galler… - I will be putting various stuff there over the next few hundred years, so expect it to fill up with nonsense and stupidity pretty quickly. If the winds blow in my favor and the tide is low, I shall be adding new scraps there every now and then because I have lots and lots of them already, and with the amount of stuff going through my head every waking hour, I should have even more by the time I end this sentence. So, be sure to check up on that folder as well if you'd like your intellectual levels to plummet... Umm, just a bit.

6. I am in a book now. Frak yeah.

I've been recently interviewed by the awesome (why the hell are there so many awesome people around all of a sudden?) Emily Breder from The Content Studio about my work on Marauder Shields and my experiences and opinions as a writer in general. Hopefully it was interesting enough to find its way onto her upcoming book about online author platforms and helping out writers struggling with finishing up their narratives. We had a nice, three (or was it four?) hour long chat and ended up with an amount of answers that I could only describe as six and a half shitloads, so I will be sure to inform you when the book comes out. Whether you're interested or not.

7. A new era for the Marauder Shields audiobook.

This should probably be a much bigger announcement than it is, but I will return to this topic next week to cover it properly... We are remaking all our audiobooks to contain nothing less but original or licensed music that we will have full rights to use, present and publish both at DeviantArt and on our upcoming site. Together with JeffDaniel (our Audio Producer) we are scraping the last few coins we've got in our pockets to buy all the licenses for the new tracks - and believe me, you will love the changes we're making. If you are by any chance an amazing music composer or would just like to help us out a bit with this whole thing, contact me at koobismo@koobismo.com and we will find a nice way to make it happen.

If you're a voice actor interested in playing a part in our audiobook - be sure to contact Jeff directly, at his jeff@koobismo.com address - with my inbox overflowing and technical gadgets failing hard all around me it's much safer to get your voice samples to Jeffyo directly.

And I think that's all for today, folks! Gotta' get a bit of sleep before getting back to work.

I know I don't have to say this again, but... Hold the Line. And Rise.

Yours truly,
Koobs

P.S. Almost forgot to mention that the awesome GameFront - which I now officially recommend as a sweeeet source for all gaming-related info - makes sure that people will hear about our new releases: www.gamefront.com/marauder-shi… - in Phil Horshaw's own words: "If you're a Mass Effect 3 fan and you're not following Koobismo's alternate ending comic, Marauder Shields, holy crap, get on that." Lots of love going from me to GameFront!