I have a new favorite Christmas song
And before you ask, this is Whamageddon-safe.
The fate of Bendy and Joey Drew Studios
This is about Joey Drew Studios, not about my comic. I want to state up-front that these developments will have no effect on the story I'm telling, which by now is completely independent of BATIM anyway.
So...Joey Drew Studios, the publisher of Bendy and the Ink Machine, has been sued by Phatmojo, the company that made a large amount of merchandise based on BATIM, Showdown Bandit, and Bendy and the Dark Revival. Remember those action figures and plushies that came out in 2019, then sat around gathering dust on store shelves because the games they represented didn't materialize? At the time I thought that was a horrible misstep for Mood and Meatly, Bendy's creators. Merchandise generates a LOT of revenue, and without that revenue the company is in trouble. And, yep, the company soon fired most of its staff and canceled Showdown Bandit after the first chapter, and postponed BATDR. They did release Boris and the Dark Survival, which I understand basically recycled code from Showdown Bandit and which, frankly, was not an exciting game.
At the time I thought that Joey Drew Studios was in trouble because no merchandiser would touch them after this debacle, and then their silence regarding BATDR in the following years. But I recently learned that PhatMojo, then company that made loads of merchandise that went unsold, is suing JDS for $435 million dollars.
Wow.
Clearly, there's no way they'll squeeze that much blood out of the turnip that is JDS. They can drive it into bankruptcy and take what they can, but I can't see it being even 1% of that much. However...and this is heavy speculation...Meatly posted a few teasers hinting at BATDR earlier this year. As if trying to convince someone that the game really is coming out. Perhaps trying to convince a company threatening to sue that the property is still viable and that killing JDS would lose them what little they could stand to gain? If so, it didn't work.
However, when I looked at Phatmojo's website, I found something interesting: a "game publishing" section. Nothing in it but a blurb saying "All new games COMING SOON!" If they plan to become a video game publisher, then wouldn't it be an interesting strategic move for them to acquire a property that had languished in the hands of its creators, then take over the development themselves? They may not be able to get $435 million, but maybe their real goal is to get the rights to Bendy.
If that is the case, and again I emphasize that this is speculation, it could be great or awful news. They might put together a good team and make BATDR, and maybe also rerelease a non-buggy-as-hell version of BATIM. After all, if they owned the property it'd be in their best interest to woo back the fans with new and improved content. Then they could sell toys without fearing that JDS would screw them over again. On the other hand, they might acquire Bendy and do nothing, or make a lousy version of BATDR. In which case, well, would we be any worse off? At least we'd know where we stand, which is more than we can say now.
Again, this all means nothing for the "Get a Life" comic. I'm telling a story, and though I no longer support JDS and long ago lost hope that they would publish any more Bendy games, I'm still invested in my comic. I have some interesting developments planned before it reaches its end, and, like Springaling, it does have a planned ending. Hope to see you there, when the time comes!
(Warning: I have been under a ton of stress lately. Life has been getting very real for me. So, I apologize in advance if I come across as unduly harsh here.)
Lately people have been asking me to put The Butcher Gang into my Get a Life comic. The short answer is: no.
The longer answer is: I am telling a story about Bendy and Alice. It is about them dealing with existence in their own ways. It is not about them fighting stock cartoon villains. This is simply not that kind of story. There is no place in Get a Life for The Butcher Gang as it now stands, and I have no interest in shoehorning them in simply because they exist. Unless something changes drastically, the most they might get is a background cameo, and even that is unlikely because that would lead people to assume that they are going to become important characters in the story. It's happened before.
If you really need to see The Butcher Gang in a comic, look around. I'm sure someone else is doing fan comics with them. If you don't like what you see elsewhere, you can always do what I have done and draw your own.
Scott Cawthon: Look, I hate to say this, but Security Breach is delayed again. We really really want to make it great! That cake is gonna have so many sprinkles and so much marzipan we'll have to put in extra supports! So, in the meantime--please put the tar and feathers down!--how about a Security Breach side-game? And it's free. We good?
Did I really slip this past y'all?
This picture was based on an image that I know for a fact some of my readers have seen. However, nobody piped up to identify it, and you all are pretty quick about things like that. I had to alter the pose a little to accommodate the characters' proportions--the characters in the original did not have big huge heads--and the wings are my own addition. Still, I thought it would be obvious.
Can any of ya identify what I was ripping off--er, making an homage to?