Seuzz upddate

Very good work, I think I saw your AF covers in an earlier post - anyway I love your superman universe ones,

NEW LANA LANG, was not only a great story but LOL! I wonder what happen before & then after!

The Bride was LOL!
Bruce Wayne hone wrecker, ROFLOL! I think Lois has got it right!
DOUBLE CROSS, gosh everyone wants to be LOIS - LOL!

The DC ones really ticked my fancy. Loved "The New Lana Lang" and Lois Lane 1 and 2.

My absolute favorite was Jimmy Olsen 2. Great to be able to make a TG situation out of a cover that doesn't seem like it could ever be that way. And love the dialogue. Superman's expression fits in perfectly with his remarks. What a hoot!!

There's an update on the front page, but I'll hype it here too. There are eight new modcovers in the Other Titles section: three "Altered Fates" and five "Reality Flux" covers. Four of the "Reality Flux" covers are entirely new. Updates start here.

Thanks for the kind words about the superhero mods. I have five more Superman/Lois Lane/Jimmy Olsen covers in the queue, and they will appear in due course. I'm trying to keep the updates balanced between various titles.

Thanks! my favorite universe is AF.
These are my favorites in AF & Reality. But all were funny.

Your Turnabout is foul play was witty, funny & well named.

Reality Flux, Gender bender, is LOL No greater love than for yourself!

I a, looking forward to more in the DC universe you have a real feel for it.

Thanks! Very good indeed.

MASTERPEICEOF DECEPTION, WOW! great story & use o pic
Caged Heat! OUCh funny
How to Murder a Millionaire,LOL! very clever
Like Father, Like Mother, LOL
I Was Body-Jumped! OOOPS! LOL
Two Many Blondes: Movie tie-in edition , good story & funny
The Nine Miss Taylors, LOL if at first you dont succeed

As a huge fan of Evil Twins and TG ID theft, I think TWO MANY BLONDES is one of those rare covers that just screams for a prose story to go along with it.

EGF

I don't think I have a novel in me. :sweat:

The cover comes from "Mystery Adventure Magazine", November 1936, for a story called "The Domino Lady's Double." It was the sixth story to feature this pulp heroine, and a little looking online says it involved her being framed by a gang-lord for murder or something like that.

Yikes, double post. But an update ...

Flogging it here as well as the front page: Danny the Tranny, a new series debuting with 8 modcovers. It opens with a Henry Aldrich cover I've been wanting to use for the longest time. And I'll go ahead and confess that the line in no. 46 comes from a Tom Stoppard farce.

FWIW, I have updates scheduled to run on Mondays and Fridays through the end of March. I've scheduled a half-dozen DC superhero modcovers for Feb. 22.

"I've scheduled a half-dozen DC superhero modcovers for Feb. 22."

Any chance for a Green Lantern cover? As a kid, I decided very young what would be the first thing I'd do if I were to get my own Power Ring.

Hmmm. It's not one I have made up. Mostly I've concentrated on Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen covers, since those are LOL even in their original form.

But I can go looking. :)

Thanks as usual! My favorites are

I married a mummy is a classic! You should right it up[ - great horror story idea!

The Archie is LOL! I love Archie modifications normally

AF Love without a net is wickedly LOL

OMG, aren't they just. Jimmy Olsen is particularly hilarious and an apparent predilection for skirts is part of the canon. Almost my first thought, when confronted with a cover featuring a red-headed heroine, is "Can I make this a Jimmy Olsen cover?" Like this:

Thanks for the kind words, all.

@ GrimGhost: Look for two Green Lantern modcovers in that update. They are each kind of stretch; GL doesn't seem to have had the same predilection for TG stuff as Jimmy Olsen. :(

@ Eric and EvaGrubbFan: I rather doubt I have complete stories in me for "Two Many Blondes" or "I Married a Mummy," but I've tried to do the next best thing. I have no idea how they will turn out, but I have launched interactive stories related to those two covers on Writing.com, including a first chapter of each. Femur has given me permission to link to those interactives through those covers, and I've launched interactives for eight other modcovers at that site.

Those two stories, as well as the others, can be accessed through this intro/table of contents:

http://www.Writing.Com/main/interact/item_id/16447 78-The-TG-Comics-Collection/map/1

Looking forward to seeing 'em.

Given recent discussion, I'll post my eight latest modcovers here as well. My own notes on each:

"The Lottery": Story-wise, I think this is pretty bland and predictable, but I like the composition of the original cover.

"Mama's Boy": There aren't a lot of mother-son swaps, which is why I went for this one. The logic of the cover may be slightly questionable: why is the son acting surprised to see his mother in his body?

"Don't Show a Leg": I puzzled the longest time over a story for this one, before settling on the idea that someone might legitimately be unhappy to see his loved one's body out having an illicitly good time. The guy in the middle seems to be really enjoying the situation, which is the main reason I wanted to do this cover.

"The Best Man for the Job": Another bland story; mostly I went for it because of I could work in an intra-story pun on "best man."

"Divorce, Body-Swapper Style": This is for other people to judge.

"Friday Foster": An attempt to find a TG theme in a non-obvious place. There was something about the guy with the camera lasciviously chasing down the terrified girl that suggested something very weird was going on.

"Death Before Deshabille": Probably very tasteless.

"Those Tricksie Trannies": Hopefully the juiciness excuses a rather pedestrian modcover.

Likewise since I started this whole mess which I feel may have earned me some enemies I feel I should comment more than usual.

First I'll start with what I'd normally comment on.
They are all well done, with few exceptions they flow well.

Now on to more specifics.
The one I like the most is The Lottery.
It's story isn't completely fresh but but it is well presented and hints at a lot of things behind the scenes.
I could see this being a very popular full story.

Mama's boy, is very strong visually but it doesn't go anywhere.
I would have liked to get a feel as to why the mother and son swapped I also have to wonder if in the one sided dialogs if the person talking isn't misunderstanding the situation. Maybe the mother is just comforting the woman and trying to pass as her son.
or maybe the two outside the window have switched as well.

Don't show leg, this one poses some questions as to what's going on behind the scenes.
No one in the picture seems surprised by the body swap, only that the wife's reputation may be hurt.
makes me wonder how many people there have used the medallion. who is who really?

The best man for the job, this seems to be a pattern with almost all wedding swaps, bring in the best man. The picture works well, the faded colors of the cover are a bit distracting but otherwise it works pretty well.

Divorce, body-swapper style, This one makes me wonder about a lot of things.
the pic is good but to me if all she has is the medallion and she doesn't want to be her ex then why not use it instead of selling it. writing a solid story around this one could be tricky because the scene itself seems faulty.

Friday Foster, I think I get that there are bodysuits involved but I'm not clear on the rest. Does he take pictures to be used to make body suits?
if so what kind of laws would have to be in place to make sure identity theft didn't run wild?
you'd have 500 Michel Jacksons 250 white 250 black.

Death Before Deshabille, I don't know where you got the pic but I like it.
I don't get the context at all. And she's not wearing a dress.
I can't say whether it's tasteless because I don't understand the context.

those Tricksie Trannies, This was well done and one Trans person turning on another is not really seen much. Can't see how it wouldn't backfire though. that may be a selling point though if it were a story.

Well there it is, I tried to be constructive, but seeing as I'm only human my comments do tend to lead toward my own tastes.

An exceptional set

I like "The Lottery" a lot; the cover is very dynamic, and I don't think the story is especially hackneyed. One assumes that either the red-head, or her fiancé, has won a large lottery prize, and the lounge-lizard in the foreground wants to swap back for mercenary motives. I'm not sure if that's been done before, but it's certainly not up their with "nasty big sisters" etc.

"Tricksy Trannies" is good too. I've had that cover sitting on my hard-drive for ages, unable to come up with a really good plot. The art deserves "brightening up" as described here.


Sue and Sally Smith, Flying Nurses, Charlton Comics, 1962. Blue jumpsuits just don't turn my crank, but I always wonder how they keep those cute little hats on as they parachute to the rescue. Mil. Spec. bobby-pins?

Great work, as usual, Seuzz. Consider me a fan. I liked "Tricksie Trannies" best. I read it not as one tranny ratting out another, but a tranny falsely fingering a real woman as a tranny. That's an idea with great potential!

Amanda

I loved all of the mod covers! I check all the time for new updates! Great job!

I think Those Tricksie Trannies is pretty original, and it gave me a chuckle. I used the original of Death before Deshabille for a Vaingirls cover and in somewhat the same way:

http://tgcaps.com/caps/modcovers/jezzi/Vaingirls/V aingirls501-600/CuttingEdge.jpg.php

Great minds and all that ...

First, thanks to everyone who commented, especially to Trista for the really substantive ones.

Second, since we've been talking about how to get dialogue going, is it okay for the authors to review the reviewers? In the spirit of telling what critiques were/are useful?

First, the positive notices from the most recent batch. Of course it's gratifying to read praise, but it's nicer when the praise tells me what I've done right:

Trista: The one I like the most is The Lottery.
It's story isn't completely fresh but but it is well presented and hints at a lot of things behind the scenes.
I could see this being a very popular full story.

[b]AndiJF: I like "The Lottery" a lot; the cover is very dynamic, and I don't think the story is especially hackneyed. One assumes that either the red-head, or her fiancé, has won a large lottery prize, and the lounge-lizard in the foreground wants to swap back for mercenary motives. I'm not sure if that's been done before, but it's certainly not up their with "nasty big sisters" etc.

Both Trista and AndiJF (explicitly or implicitly) refer to "hints at lots of things" going on "behind the scenes" and seem to like that. I'm glad there weren't complaints about it being ambiguous or unclear on what's going on because (see below) I prefer to leave some ambiguity in my covers where possible.

Trista: those Tricksie Trannies, This was well done and one Trans person turning on another is not really seen much. Can't see how it wouldn't backfire though. that may be a selling point though if it were a story.

AndiJF: "Tricksy Trannies" is good too. I've had that cover sitting on my hard-drive for ages, unable to come up with a really good plot. The art deserves "brightening up" as described here.

Amanda Hawkins: I liked "Tricksie Trannies" best. I read it not as one tranny ratting out another, but a tranny falsely fingering a real woman as a tranny. That's an idea with great potential!

Jezzi Stewart: I think Those Tricksie Trannies is pretty original, and it gave me a chuckle.

Again, I'm glad, because it was my favorite of the bunch. Again, I note that people had differing interpretations of what was going on, even as they reacted favorably. And again, I did this kind of thing on purpose, since I figured most of the possible interpretations would work and wanted to leave some ambiguity in the stories.

Still, as we'll see in a moment, this kind of thing doesn't always work out.

The rest of the comments are from Trista:

Mama's boy, is very strong visually but it doesn't go anywhere.
I would have liked to get a feel as to why the mother and son swapped I also have to wonder if in the one sided dialogs if the person talking isn't misunderstanding the situation. Maybe the mother is just comforting the woman and trying to pass as her son.
or maybe the two outside the window have switched as well.

I found this a really good comment and very constructive. Even though I wasn't keen on the alternatives suggested, which are very byzantine, they did reinforce the soundness of the overall judgment, which is that this cover tries to get by on one joke which isn't even that much of a joke. There isn't room to add much to the story without adding a "wall of words," which I avoid doing except when absolutely necessary, so we'll see if the revision attached below strikes people as being any better.

The best man for the job, this seems to be a pattern with almost all wedding swaps, bring in the best man. The picture works well, the faded colors of the cover are a bit distracting but otherwise it works pretty well.

Hmmm. I didn't realize best men figured in so regularly in these things. That's good to know. I may just stay away from wedding-themed covers from now on, because the possibilities inherent in them seem very limited.

Death Before Deshabille, I don't know where you got the pic but I like it.
I don't get the context at all. And she's not wearing a dress.
I can't say whether it's tasteless because I don't understand the context.

I plead "no contest" on the "dress thing." I wish it had been a dress. But I went with "dress" because "jump suit" or "pants suit" aren't funny like "dress" is, at least IMO, and I gambled that "dress" would be interpreted as "women's clothing," which is all that the cover (I thought) needed. But maybe the gamble doesn't pay off. (What say you others?)

The rest of this comment confuses me, because I don't know what you mean by "context." Do you also not get the context of the original in the link that AndiJF provided, or in Jezzi's version? (Wow, they are the same, aren't they? But jiminy, Jezzi, you make so many that maybe I should be glad if I don't repeat you too often!) Because the original and my mod and Jezzi's mod are pretty much exactly the same, only with the content of the demand being changed.

Don't show leg, this one poses some questions as to what's going on behind the scenes.
No one in the picture seems surprised by the body swap, only that the wife's reputation may be hurt.
makes me wonder how many people there have used the medallion. who is who really

I wish this comment told me whether you think the cover works or doesn't. Is it good that you have these questions? Or are you dissatisfied because you have them?

Friday Foster, I think I get that there are bodysuits involved but I'm not clear on the rest. Does he take pictures to be used to make body suits?
if so what kind of laws would have to be in place to make sure identity theft didn't run wild?
you'd have 500 Michel Jacksons 250 white 250 black.

Divorce, body-swapper style, This one makes me wonder about a lot of things.
the pic is good but to me if all she has is the medallion and she doesn't want to be her ex then why not use it instead of selling it. writing a solid story around this one could be tricky because the scene itself seems faulty

These two are the comments I have the hardest time replying to, because I can only be argumentative. There seems to be a deep and serious disconnect between what you as a reader are wanting and what I as an author am willing to provide.

"Divorce": First of all, where in the modcover does it say that this person doesn't want to have this body? This person is saying he has only two things of value to pawn, and says that this is a "terrible" position to be in, neither of which necessarily imply that the body is unwanted. (In fact, the person went to the trouble to steal it, which I thought would indicate that it was actually a desirable body, not least to the person who is in the "terrible" position of having to pawn it.)

I had hoped the implication in the dialogue balloon would be clear, because the last thing I want to do is write the joke and situation out in deadening clarity. If I did write it out so as to forestall all possible confusion on the part of the reader, it would go something like this: "*Sob* I am upset because I used the Medallion of Zulo, which lets you swap bodies with other people, to take my ex-wife's body. But now I am broke—I lost all my money at the track or in the stock market or something—and I have to pawn my valuables. But I don't have anything of value except the Medallion. I can sell that. Wait a minute! I can also sell this body, which is very desirable. See, I will accept a lot of cash from this pawnbroker, and in return I will swap bodies with him, so that he will get this body and I'll get his, and then for more cash I'll sell him the Medallion. That way he can go on to sell this body and maybe the Medallion in the same way to some other customer! That is why he might pay me a lot of money for it!"

"Foster": Similarly, are you actually asking for a text box that would explain the federal statutes that would govern in situations like this? Where would be the interest or the humor in that?

There are more general reflections to be said about this—and I say them in the "An obsevation" thread—but here's the short version: I like to make covers that rely to a large degree on insinuation and implication, even at the risk of obscurity and ambiguity. I think jokes and stories are funnier and stronger when the reader has to do a little extra work.

"Foster" probably falls a little too much on the side of obscurity, and probably doesn't work for that reason. But I knew it would be a challenging cover to "read," and intended it to be so. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go that far, but here is my reasoning: Stories about the Medallion of Zulo can always make the assumption that the Medallion is a rarity and that few people know about it or its uses. But a world that has body suits in it is one in which everyone knows what is going on. What kind of a world would that be? Well, this cover isn't supposed to answer all those questions—"what kind of laws would have to be in place?" Really, you want that level of detail in a modcover?—but it is supposed to make you think that such questions would be pertinent. As the cover says, someone has to provide the images that are used to make the suits. The man chasing the woman is supposed to imply that "image wranglers" are a pretty nasty and invasive lot, and that the whole job is nasty and invasive. Yeah, there had better be some laws. But why does the cover have to answer all those questions? The point (I intended) is to force the reader into recognizing that such questions would be there to be asked, and to thereby see that there is something both horrific and absurd in what a "world of body suits" would be like.

These latter two cases may reflect a difference of taste and of philosophy, which I suspect makes it hard to for comments (even constructive ones) to connect.

As far as Divorce, I just interpreted it differently than you planed.
It happens.
But I can see what you mean now.

Fosters, No I'm not asking for some long drawn out legal case,
that was just one of the first things that came to mind.
If he has a legitimate job then it would have to be legal and would have to follow certain laws to protect the identity of others.
I think I get where it was going but the way it was presented, I got lost.
Not hard, I sometimes have the attention span of a gerbil.

Along the same line If bodysuits were legal and known to the public there would be little need to hire a real famous actress because you could have an entire movie of stand ins.
But here again this is just an observation of the world not something to be added to the cover.

I'm an emersive reader, I like to sink into the scene and I pick up details very fast, so when the details seem to contradict the world seems to fall apart and I have trouble wrapping my head around the scene.

As far as "Don't show leg", I can't say I liked it but I can't say I didn't
In the foreground it works well but the background people didn't seem to to be part of the action (even though the dialog indirectly addresses them), so I'm just indifferent about it.

To be honest If I truly don't like something at all and have nothing constructive to say, I usually say nothing because to say something completely negative wouldn't help at all.
by the same coin to only say something is good without defining how doesn't help much ether.

Don't ever think I want to change your style. I'm just viewing your work with different eyes is all.
So my suggestions may be a little course at times but they are as honest as I can make them.

The Revised cap seems to have a better inner dialog feel to it.
But I've never been a big fan of parent child switches.