There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

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Jason
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There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Jason »

In a Ripley's Believes it or Not strip, they said there was a bot that has been downloaded with lots of literature and can produce fiction. All they'd have to do is download Godzilla stories and other stories involving giant monsters into it, and you wouldn't even have to pay a writer to write any stories; and if it can be programmed to draw and color battles between Kaiju, then you wouldn't even have to hire artists and colorists.
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SpaceG92
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by SpaceG92 »

...

Wha -



I can't even grasp - ...
....


I personally played with a literature bot - it gives a lose, garbage, a->b->c->q->d->z mess of a plot. While the concept is cool and can be used a funny meme. I cannot fathom any reality in which we do this.

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LSD Jellyfish
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I mean you could argue this for any series or fictional concept, but there’s a reason why lit bots wouldn’t work. SG covered it but even if a well throughout plot was done, there’s no way it could deliver with dialogue, tone and other stuff. Same for the interior panels. That would remove the whole human element of art.

I also don’t think paying writers (and hey why shouldn’t they be paid better!) nor the lack of the ideas is why they stopped the Godzilla comic property. The liscence ran out, the IDW run, while full of failures, was also full of great accomplishments and successes. Godzilla Rage against time had some really original plots and ideas and was well received minus issue 4. I think IDW and whoever spearheaded the property just thought it was a good time to let the liscence expire, they had done tons of stuff and it was time to be left alone. Also it ended around the time of Shin G’s release, which is good because it works as as a good place to stop and let the franchise go in a different direction.

If/when Godzilla returns to comics, I would hope they let they update things, and have things like Muto’s, Servum, Shin G and whatever the future holds. It isn’t an issue of creativity, just an appropriate time to let more movies come out and interest renew.

In addition, while I criticize fan fiction a lot, many people on here are more than capable of coming up with new and refreshing plots. I remember at one point I wrote a mock plot to a Godzilla Legends issue featuring Rodan vs Megaguirus in the Midwest, or a one shot where instead of bringing back MKG to fight Godzilla in 92, they bring back something like Mecha Anguirus. Creativity isn’t the issue.
Last edited by LSD Jellyfish on Tue Jan 09, 2018 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SpaceG92
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by SpaceG92 »

Dang LSD, VERY well said.


Indeed - losing that human touch and specific cues in the background or even foreground that I can't see a computer doing - unless manually configured to do so. At that point, just do it yourself - you can convey better if you have full control then a machine.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Mr. Yellow »

I agree the human aspect is really important and I feel automation could not put the stories and characters together that we want to see. You can’t program emotions (yet).

And I really hope the comics are picked up by BOOM Studios. They are doing an incredible job with Power Rangers right now and weaving and crafting such diverse stories and integrating so many aspects of the franchise.

BOOM also and experience with Kong as well, and I think they could really enlighten the MonsterVerse and could be a way to introduce lesser monsters in way that’s more comfortable for Legendary.
"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. They do not attack people because they want to, but because of their size and strength, mankind has no other choice but to defend himself. After several stories such as this, people end up having a kind of affection for the monsters. They end up caring about them." - Ishiro Honda

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Bigdog »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:I mean you could argue this for any series or fictional concept, but there’s a reason why lit bots wouldn’t work. SG covered it but even if a well throughout plot was done, there’s no way it could deliver with dialogue, tone and other stuff. Same for the interior panels. That would remove the whole human element of art.

I also don’t think paying writers (and hey why shouldn’t they be paid better!) nor the lack of the ideas is why they stopped the Godzilla comic property. The liscence ran out, the IDW run, while full of failures, was also full of great accomplishments and successes. Godzilla Rage against time had some really original plots and ideas and was well received minus issue 4. I think IDW and whoever spearheaded the property just thought it was a good time to let the liscence expire, they had done tons of stuff and it was time to be left alone. Also it ended around the time of Shin G’s release, which is good because it works as as a good place to stop and let the franchise go in a different direction.

If/when Godzilla returns to comics, I would hope they let they update things, and have things like Muto’s, Servum, Shin G and whatever the future holds. It isn’t an issue of creativity, just an appropriate time to let more movies come out and interest renew.

In addition, while I criticize fan fiction a lot, many people on here are more than capable of coming up with new and refreshing plots. I remember at one point I wrote a mock plot to a Godzilla Legends issue featuring Rodan vs Megaguirus in the Midwest, or a one shot where instead of bringing back MKG to fight Godzilla in 92, they bring back something like Mecha Anguirus. Creativity isn’t the issue.
I find the fanfiction here to be exceptional to what I usually read. Then again, I go off of recommendations or stumble on pretty good stories that I'm surprised aren't published.

I would love to expand my concept for alternate dystopian sequel to Biollante or just 1984 that cribs from the 1974 MechaGodzilla film myself. That alone could be a series on its own, though I'd probably have to get an artist that can deliver the horror angle to work with. Just practicing drawing and composition, I could probably whoop up a decent horror comic on that premise, with or without it having Godzilla in it. Or as a novel.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by mikelcho »

I'd like to see Toho allow IDW to publish Godzilla: Complete Rulers of Earth Volume 2 and maybe even allow them to publish two more things as well: Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters in a single volume and one more comic book-Godzilla: The IDW Era Part 2, in order to finish what they started with Godzilla: The IDW Era.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

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Jason wrote:In a Ripley's Believes it or Not strip, they said there was a bot that has been downloaded with lots of literature and can produce fiction. All they'd have to do is download Godzilla stories and other stories involving giant monsters into it, and you wouldn't even have to pay a writer to write any stories; and if it can be programmed to draw and color battles between Kaiju, then you wouldn't even have to hire artists and colorists.
Take care and God bless
:roll:

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Showa Gyaos »

Writing a comic book is so much more complex than this. Any form of writing is. You can't get that from a machine. Writing is something that requires ideation, which a machine is incapable of doing.
Last edited by Showa Gyaos on Sat Jan 13, 2018 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

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Image
- Hayao Miyazaki after being shown something similar.
Image

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by UltimateDitto »

Jason wrote:In a Ripley's Believes it or Not strip, they said there was a bot that has been downloaded with lots of literature and can produce fiction. All they'd have to do is download Godzilla stories and other stories involving giant monsters into it, and you wouldn't even have to pay a writer to write any stories; and if it can be programmed to draw and color battles between Kaiju, then you wouldn't even have to hire artists and colorists.
Take care and God bless
You must also believe that good animation comes from a machine that you pour the budget into. -_-

As people above have stated, writing is not something a machine can just whip up, it takes time, effort, and a HUMAN to make it happen. It's not like Godzilla comics or novels are dead, they'll be back soon, under a different publisher I assume.
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by G1985 »

The below comments were posted to the Diamond Select Toys' blog re Star Trek toys in 2014, but the information applies to Godzilla merchandise and to comics as well. The numbers may be different depending on the item, but it takes retailer partners believing that they will sell tens of thousands of Godzilla items every time a new version [requiring a new sculpt] is released, to persuade a license holder to renew their Godzilla license:
For the most part we rely on retailers to make our sales for us. Our web store is also not even set up to sell worldwide. I’d have to be honest with you, too, I would really doubt we would get enough direct sales to go forward with an item that our retail community thought was not sellable. For that to work, you would really have to think most retailers have no idea of their customers. To do a ship or even an action figure, you require blocks of steel tools to be created, as well as sound chips and masking. For the most part, items that require a steel tool do not become profitable until sales cross the 15K piece threshold. That’s for simple ones with some tricks of the trade applied – and that’s just to cross over to profit from loss. I can assure you, if we thought the support was there for something, we’d just go ahead and develop it – we want to make money, too.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Dawsbfiremind »

This is a keyboard. It costs roughly $50

Image

This is a laptop. It costs a little bit more.

Image

This is skreeonking paper. It's pretty much free.

Image

Now, add some hands with applicable motor functions and idea or two, and you have a better, cheaper story than you would get if you spent oodles to make an AI to do a writer's job.
Which would take the art out of writing.
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

G1985 wrote:The below comments were posted to the Diamond Select Toys' blog re Star Trek toys in 2014, but the information applies to Godzilla merchandise and to comics as well. The numbers may be different depending on the item, but it takes retailer partners believing that they will sell tens of thousands of Godzilla items every time a new version [requiring a new sculpt] is released, to persuade a license holder to renew their Godzilla license:
For the most part we rely on retailers to make our sales for us. Our web store is also not even set up to sell worldwide. I’d have to be honest with you, too, I would really doubt we would get enough direct sales to go forward with an item that our retail community thought was not sellable. For that to work, you would really have to think most retailers have no idea of their customers. To do a ship or even an action figure, you require blocks of steel tools to be created, as well as sound chips and masking. For the most part, items that require a steel tool do not become profitable until sales cross the 15K piece threshold. That’s for simple ones with some tricks of the trade applied – and that’s just to cross over to profit from loss. I can assure you, if we thought the support was there for something, we’d just go ahead and develop it – we want to make money, too.
Sorta unrelated, but related; the thing is I believe that comics have a higher profit ratio compared to plastic figures. Yeah, printer ink is expensive, but not as much as large amounts of vinyl and paint that are used to produce them. Paper, even nice quality ones, is probably pretty cheap when used for mass production. So even then still the Godzilla comics could generate a nice enough profit if they were selling 6,000-8,000 issues a month and then trades. Not saying that’s a massive profit, but still makes some where the creators and everyone can get paid.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by UltramanGoji »

I don't know why anybody takes anything this guy says seriously. Half of his posts are indecipherable and pretty clearly trolling.

Anyway, kind of glad IDW let their license run out (aside from stopping before the rest of the TPBs were fully released). If their Hasbro comics are anything to go by, the company doesn't really know what it's doing anymore. I'd like to see Boom! get the license.
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by Jason »

Well if you need more information about this particular one, it's called Shelley; and it's named after the author of Frankenstein. There are quite a few websites that talk about it. The Ripley's strip said it's at MIT; but unfortunately, I don't know the address. I did read that it puts out bone chiller stuff, and I even read a small portion of it. I tried calling, and I didn't get anywhere.
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LSD Jellyfish
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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

Jason wrote:Well if you need more information about this particular one, it's called Shelley; and it's named after the author of Frankenstein. There are quite a few websites that talk about it. The Ripley's strip said it's at MIT; but unfortunately, I don't know the address. I did read that it puts out bone chiller stuff, and I even read a small portion of it. I tried calling, and I didn't get anywhere.
Take care and God bless
Sorta seals the deal that you’re either a troll, like the evidence Godzillan provided, or decently mentally handicapped.

You know the AI’s name, and you know that it’s from MIT. If you look it up, it’s just a really simply AI that pretty much recycles cliches from horror stories on reddit. The “stories” are only a paragraph long, and provide very soarse detail, and actually half of it is written by humans. I’m not trying to undermine it, it’s still fascinating, but it’s not anywhere near what you’re trying to construe it as.

For those curious:
http://shelley.ai

Also, you calling MIT is probably the most hilarious thing.
Spirit Ghidorah 2010 wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2023 4:54 pm Anno-san pleasures me more than Yamasaki-san.

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Re: There's nothing to justify not renewing the license for Godzilla

Post by GodEmperorGabara »

Well, I'm convinced he's a troll.

Since this topic has served some sort of purpose, I'm locking the thread.
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