Chapter 68: Detachment and Inclusivity

Alexander eventually finished with some of his preliminary preparations for Autobots vs. Decepticons. He hadn't actually outlined anything as of yet but just listed out the major names and events he could think of.

He was even already ditching that cheesy placeholder title and considering The Cybertronian Chronicles.

Unlike the version of everyone dying and rebooting to the next generation that Hasbro has previously employed, Alexander wanted his version to be more cohesive in the grand succession of things.

Of course, remakes are an option but that is when new and cooler toys are made possible by toymaking advancements.

He didn't want to introduce a character just because he wanted a new toy line. Instead, he wanted the new toylines to follow the flow of the story.

As someone who greatly dislikes obvious advertisement characters in his past life, he didn't want the new transforming robot fandom to bear the same grudge.

Of course, he is still following his capitalist heart so whose to say that he would follow that glorious morality in doing things.

Essentially, Transformers itself or any story is an advertisement of itself. How could it be a franchise if it wasn't?

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As Alexander kept his notes so that he could do some little boss responsibilities outside the office, he noticed little Milla looking at him weirdly.

"Is there anything wrong?"

"You smiled." The girl simply stated as if she saw something that she shouldn't have seen.

"I smiled and that's that." He said. "What is anything about that that could warrant weird looks from you?"

"It is weird because it doesn't happen a lot." Milla stated that as a fact which Alexander could only dismiss.

"You know, grandpa Sullivan says that your hyperfocused on what you like, and everything that isn't interesting to you is treated per punk Tori." Milla then brought up an interesting tidbit. "What does per punk Tori mean?"

"I'm guessing you mean to say perfunctory.

Milla wasn't exactly English adept since she's Ukranian or whatnot. "What does that mean anyway?"

"Doing the minimum to things instead of the optimum best." Alexander stated while also curious about her curiosity. "Why bring that up anyway? It's a big jump from talking about my weird smile, as you say."

"I just thought you loved what you're doing and that's why you were super super focused earlier." She simply said what she observed. "But why are these RoboCop and Predator only minimum and per-functory?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Robocop is just a lot of drawing about many Robocops with one page about police and some character names. While Predator is just some scary drawing and the story is nothing at all." Milla complained. "I read through them quite quickly so you are not doing your best and are only doing the minimum."

As such the accusation was reasoned with the fact that she didn't get enough to read and work on. For Alexander who takes pride in being efficient, it felt like a blow to his efficiency.

Alexander felt helpless at her underestimation. "Making comic books and outlining an entire story isn't exactly a piece of cake, you know. In fact, I am already quite proud of the work I've achieved given the little time and multiple projects I'm juggling on."

"Hmm..." Milla was unconvinced but there were still things she had to ask. "Why are these stories so short by the way?"

"They are just outlines." Although she considers it short, Alexander considered it a win to have made them in a span of half a day.

The childish curiosity went but at least it wasn't about the lack of long-form story and detailed coherency. "Why did you have to make this Yautja so scary?"

"They wouldn't be Predators if they weren't." This line of back and forth eventually reminded him of this Milla girl's hidden function to him.

He wouldn't be making use of her reaction and experimental market dummy identity if he didn't ask. "What do you think about my new stories by the way?"

"I think the final version of Robocop, the dark one is cool. The first clunky version feels crappy." Oblivious to her predicament, Milica answered his hidden survey. "I don't like Predators at all. He looks cool with that mask thing but he gets extremely scary without it."

As expected, Alexander got critical insights that would be influential in the long run. He surveyed on with the experimental dummy and didn't forget to take another impression of hers.

"Why don't you check out these transforming robotic aliens of mine?"

"Okay." Milla inadvertently accepted and thus the next round of preliminary reaction gauging began.

All in all, Alexander has to commend the great utility of someone giving you criticizing feedback.

------

Finally appeasing himself with little Jovovich's naiveness, Alexander got to do his next routine survey with regards to the five comic booking groups.

While group 5 was assigned with coloring and inking his completed pencil works, the rest were experimenting on their assigned issues.

As the 40 of them worked on the much simpler Dragonball and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Alexander still kept the much grandiose Thundercats to himself.

As he passed by them and gave out his criticisms, he was now considering whether he could outsource Lion-o to them as well.

He has three new works to focus on and the looming presence of Hasbro's supposedly flagship toyline needs him to run ahead before the race could even start.

In any case, the progress that the second floor has is satisfactory enough. It could even be said to be over the top with them working on issues that would only be published a year ahead from now.

The nerd market didn't even need to worry about release delays as Creed Comics got their worries covered.

Unlike other traditional comic book companies that adapt to the reaction of the market and the society, Creed titles are just stories themselves that would be told with whatever turmoil that society has encountered.

The biggest advantage of stockpiled issues is not worrying about the market with missed releases. Even the Big Two wanted to know Creed Comics' secret to their never-ending weekly releases.

The big disadvantage is that the stockpile issues may not resonate much with the audience as Alexander hoped. A feedback and adaptation loop is needed to make things much more conducive.

Previously, Ms. Marker pointed out a slight decline in sales and pinpointed that fan disregard is the reason for it.

Creed Comics' market detachment is worrying in the long run as such appropriate countermeasures need to be made.

Fortunately, his recent interaction with Milla gave him the positive quirks of listening to audience perception and there was no need to continue to deny the inclusiveness that the fans want.

Alexander wants a renewed comic book community and renewed comic book community is what he would be working towards.

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As of now, he had less than half a day to do some polishing with the renewed 'Transformers' outline and considering how to juggle six comic titles with the resources he has at hand.

However, he also took the time to brainstorm himself with inclusivity options that his ideal comic book company and community should have.