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Good vs. Medieval: Behind the Myth

It all started back in December, 1991, when two friends named Ken and Greg introduced me to Milton Bradley's Heroquest. In case you're not familiar with that obscure title, Heroquest was an adventure board game, a lot simpler, with less paperwork and more hands-on gameplay than Dungeons & Dragons, which I never had the patience to even start playing. Heroquest was ideal for five players taking the roles of four generic, nameless heroes, and an evil ruler named Zargon. It worked well with three players, too, as Ken and Greg commanded two heroes apiece. Greg chose the wizard and dwarf, while bodybuilder Ken saw it only natural to play the barbarian; the elf was default. (Poor Keeb, that dorky kid in gym class who's last to be picked.) I was the dungeon master, trying to thwart their progress through a dozen mazes outlined in a quest manual.

Ken and Greg's antics made Heroquest especially fun. Take Ken's problem-solving skills: "Barbarian searches for secret doors... Barbarian sits in the chair... Barbarian looks under the chair... Barbarian farts..."; and combine it with Greg's squeaky-wheel sportsmanship: "Saying that a wizard loses his class because he touches a sword is just stupid! That's like saying if there's a lollipop on the floor, and I touch it, then all of a sudden I'm a dickhead!"; and we had quite a comedy team.

It was a deciding time in my life since I had no artistic talent, but the spark showed in little doodles I made of Ken and Greg playing the game in character. Those doodles evolved into short comics, wacky cartoon shows filled with anachronisms, stupid jokes, pratfalls, and trivial quests. The elf and dwarf may as well have been cardboard cutouts, for Ken and "Gregor" ran the show.

Unfortunately the Heroquest days ended after two months, and everyone went their separate ways soon after. Seeing that hmm, maybe I did have some artistic talent, I began painting enamel portraits. Come 1993, however, I felt nostalgic and started developing a computer game based on Heroquest. This was when a single important development was made: the name "Good vs. Medieval". Although the game idea lasted about a week, at least something came out of it.

Comics flip-flopped with portrait painting, but during the 1994 production of StarEthan Meets Good vs. Medieval, my interest in drawing comics peaked. There were two problems, though. My ideas kept getting bigger, and my drawing style kept evolving. Keeping things consistent became frustrating, and three GvM comic book attempts fizzled between '94 and '95. So I tried something new: writing a full-length fiction. With no literary experience whatsoever, and no desire to actually read fiction, I created What Goes Around, which took two years to write and retains a lot of the classic GvM foolishness from back in the day. We'll just call this "book zero" because it's pretty bad. I'm afraid to read it!

As my writing experience grows, I continue to write GvM stories to this day. I completed GvM's first novel, Crossroads of Souls in 2004, and I'm starting to notice their niche. With story ideas getting more theoretical and philosophical, Keno, Gregor, Keeb and Stumpy— and even the bad guys— are reluctant to drop their zany origins. Thus, the heroes are almost becoming mascots in their own series, whereas main character temps do the dramatic stuff.

Unless I somehow devote all my time to writing, Good vs. Medieval will remain arbitrary. I don't foresee future volumes of GvM's life that culminate into an end-all battle. Every story is a stand-alone with its own quest and characters— maybe a little bit of continuity. I don't see their art style getting more evolved, either; they're simply cartoon characters. Never mind demons; GvM fear losing their souls to each new drama I create!

 

Enter Bluette

Because she likes it! Bluette was born on New Year's Eve, 1995, during the production of What Goes Around. The setting: a way too typical dragon's lair, and the maiden's name, fitting with how she always got into trouble, was initially a silly play on words: "Looks like I Bluette again!" Anyway, this story snowballs into a challenge for her heart that pits Good vs. Medieval against someone equally as blond as she. The end result: she tries to kill her new Prince Charming because she can't stand him, fails, then accidentally gets shot in the back by a pair of world traders before being thrown into a volcano (although her being a virgin was doubtful) to appease the fire gods. Only in a GvM story!

But Bluette's horrible death did not mean the end of her. Satisfied by the completion of GvM's first— er, zeroth book, I got back into drawing, and what better model to use than my own blonde bombshell. Thus, Bluette's visual legacy began.

I introduced her to Internet fanboys, and she took on a life of her own. Some of her audience wanted pictures of her in ways that leave nothing to the imagination, but I don't pimp like that. So it became the style of the five-foot-eleven commander of the come-hither to sip cocktails, demand attention, and tease, tease, tease. As my alpha-girl, she demands illustrated perfection. For every new artwork I imagine, I consider how it would look if she were part of it. Rarely is she omitted from drawings involving her girlfriends.

Celest's birthday is the day after Bluette's, but she arrived two years later: January 1st, 1998. Like Bluette, she was cast in a Good vs. Medieval book, but this one fizzled at 25% completion because it was stupid. Celest is the rugged outdoors type who enjoys hiking, mountain climbing, and other modern-day adventures. Originally cast as an archaeological genius, her use of big words turned out to be a bad gimmick.

Finally, Centura was born on March 11th, 1999, when I began work on one of my most elaborate masterpieces, Blade Ballet. For a while, she was the most inconspicuous of the trifecta because of Bluette's pecking order. Then, in 2002, she was officially initiated by being cast in a Good vs. Medieval book, and no longer was she overlooked. In Crossroads of Souls, she's not an expendable bubblehead or a babbling brainiac; she's the queen of all evil! That role helped shape her off-the-record personality into that of a mean spirit— one who finds pleasure in weaponry over flirtation.

More on this section coming soon.

 

Who's the weirdo with the bouncing pecs?

Take my mom, her boss, and a bunch of other lunatics, put them on a hay wagon, and you get Wondero. Not that way, freak! Back in 1993, Halloween hay rides were the bomb— according to Mom. She was so excited about joining her coworkers for her first hay ride, I drew a short comic adventure foretelling how it would go if it were the coolest hay ride ever! The running gag was her boss dressing as Fabio and getting into a whole heap of trouble. I liked this character so much, I called him Wondero and kept him around for comic relief. Wondero had a tendency to make unannounced cameos to GvM's dismay. His biggest role was in What Goes Around, where he swept Bluette off her feet and took her on a fantastic adventure— not really. Wondero's narcissism and slaughtering of the English language drove Bluette to poison his canteen. Regretfully he was too dense to fall for it.

Currently Wondero is enjoying retirement as a create-a-wrestler in WWE video games.