#helldivers fanwork

[vulshokbersrker]

Some Helldivers have translated the language of the Automatons. Thanks to their hard work, I have created this font based on their work.

Collective Consciousness Helldivers 2 font:

[thelastomnitect]

I HAVE A FANCOMIC CONUNDRUM

Hey, Voyagers!

I'm Omni, your favorite Robot-American, TTRPG Creator & Artist buddy... aaaand Im in a bind.

So, for those of you in the know, Ive been really enjoying making fancomic works lately, and its been very rewarding (Check out my Helldivers 2 Fancomic "Gentry Dolaan Aint No Fascist" if youre interested in what I've been cooking!). So much so, that I am also working on a Space Marine Fancomic/Webcomic (working title: "BROTHERS: a Tale of Treachery and Doom"), and I'm really excited about it. Ive been doing tons of art and planning for it behind the scenes, and it's a story I think will be really fun to tell and read! I've been a huge fan of the Warhammer setting since I was young, and Narrative campaigns like The Taros Campaign, Siege of Vraks & The Badab War sit on my bookshelves next to my copies of some Horus Heresy books & my Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus. Its definitely a loveletter to this hobby and setting I've loved for so long...

...BUT...

Games Workshop (the owners of the "WARHAMMER 40,000" IP and the creators of the Tabletop Miniature game) is a terrible company. For a very abbreviated list of their bullshit... - Games Workshop can be overly litigious towards fan creators (a few years back, they went on an absolute spree of issuing cease-and-desist/takedown notices on tons of fanworks in preparation of the launch of their WARHMMER+ streaming service, primarily to prevent competition to their in house animations. It's either directly destroyed or had a crazy chilling effect on many amazing fan projects, such as Bruva Alfabusa's amazing "If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device" which has been discontinued, or gorgeous animations like THE EXODITE or ASTARTES, both of which were bought up, taken off of youtube and forced onto their premium Warhammer + service behind a paywall. The creator of ASTARTES has already suffered a great deal at the hands of hackers stealing their youtube channel, and since their purchase by GW and move to Warhammer plus has been dead silent, and the EXODITE suffered immensely during its production. And with a new Warhammer TV series in development, and the success of SPACE MARINE 2, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that kind of aggressive legal gatekeeping behavior again soon...) - They abusively price & market their products (they have the single highest priced miniatures in the entire wargaming hobby, frequently rely on FOMO events and bundling [even for rules and important items the community HAS to buy], relentlessly overprice in several regions across the world, and intentionally price gouge their books and rules, all while taking down any free access to any of those rules at the first given opportunity. There is no reason a single, unassembled and unpainted, mono-pose 32mm miniature should be priced at $45 dollars. That's insane.) - They have done so much damage to the Wargaming Hobby Community in their time (They are basically the EA of the Wargaming hobby. They drive medium sized wargames out of the market under walls of money, advertisement and litigation, create walled content gardens that discourage players from leaving them, have set terrible standards in the larger hobby like a lack of free-to-download rules & denial of third-party miniatures at their tournaments, and have gone so far as to literally not even call their hobby wargaming but the "WARHAMMER Hobby", so players dont accidentally stumble across the rest of the industry. Its BAND-AID bandage levels of market crushing brand power, and they abuse it constantly to the detriment of the entire hobby. Again, its basically the same level of industry damage as Activision or EA have done to the videogaming world). ... so yeah, again, I LOVE the setting & the world, and I've had a long standing relationship with the wargame property itself, but GW has a deathgrip on the franchise. Truth is, I dont want to steer more people towards them, or lose all the work I put into this webcomic project because GW's legal team is feeling a little overly litigious in advance of some new Netflix show or videogame or edition release.

HOWEVER, I have other options. Games Workshop doesn't corner the market on Space Marines with big pauldrons and dramatic flair. I COULD just set "Brothers" in a more creator friendly IP... like ONE PAGE RULES's GRIMDARK FUTURE setting, and without too much effort. While there would be some differences, it would still be the same tale of stoic battle brothers contending with isolation, dogma, and struggling with the concessions needed to survive in a hostile place. Hell, their super-human gene-sculpted super soldiers are literally called BROTHERS, so it's... kinda serendipitous, to be real with you. The folks at OPR are much smaller company and have infinitely better business practices. They market their products in a much more responsible and ethical manner, sell both 3d-printable miniature files and pre-printed miniatures themselves, their games are all miniature agnostic and well designed, and frankly, they actually give a damn about their fan creators. They even run Fan Creator Competitions (I just joined a Writing Jam they hosted a few months back! It was a blast), and give free miniatures and huge discounts to the winners. Generally speaking, they are the kind of tiny company I actually could see myself patronizing and supporting, amybe even working with at some point, and they are far closer to the way I'd prefer to see the wargaming industry develop in the future (I am NOT sponsored by OPR, by the way. Just wanted to make that clear. I wouldn't turn it down, not gonna lie, but as of time of this post, I've no support from either GW or OPR) And I know Im not the only one who's been making these calculations when working on their fan works. Bruva Alfabusa has moved on to working with friendly IPs, like their awesome World of Darkness series "Hunter: the Parenting" series, while the Exodite's creator has completely pivoted into working on their own grimdark IP, "PROJECT MORNINGSTAR", which is well worth a look, btw. The issue I face is that while I vastly prefer supporting OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE and them as a company, I originally started this project as a 40K fanwork. And I know that, for all its many flaws, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 brand name carries a lot of recognition and fandom power, and it's setting has a lot of personal meaning to me. OPR is growing and it's got a really passionate fandom, but its only a fraction the size of GW's juggernaut, and while I'm not creatively tied to either setting atm, I'd be a liar to not at least acknowledge and respect the sheer fandom gravity of the Warhammer 40,000 IP. And fancomics can live and die on the size and relative energy of their fanbases.

So that's my Conundrum.

Do I continue along the path I was already on and make this fancomic a WARHAMMER 40,000 story, facing the fact I'd basically be advertising for a company I hate and risking that if I ever managed to garner a big enough fanbase the GW legal might just pop in and shut me down, all in exchange for brand recognition? Or do I take a chance on my personal principles, set it in OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE, tell the same story I was already excited to tell and support a company and a game that I actually think is worth talking about, but risk the smaller community and less passionate fanbase not being enough to get the fancomic off the launchpad in the first place?

I'm genuinely soul searching here, Voyagers. And I want your opinion.

The truth is, I know which way I want to go, but what do you think? If youre a creator / fan / artist / player / hobbyist of WARHAMMER 40,000, WARHAMMER, ONE PAGE RULES GAMES, GRIMDARK FUTURE, WARGAMING, FANCOMICS, FANWORKS, SCIENCE FICTION, or even just read your way through all of this and wanted to give me your opinion (thank you, by the way, that's incredibly kind of you) what do you think? PLEASE, tell me your thoughts and feedback in the comments. And, for anybody who got this far, thank you for reading this. Seriously, I appreciate you. See you out there, Voyagers~

-The Last Omnitect