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Post by Nigel Kitching on Feb 18, 2012 18:53:36 GMT
Hello Mr. Kitching I would to start this post by saying that you're my favourite writer from Sonic the Comic as I highly enjoyed many of the stories and characters you had created. There's a question that had bugged me for quite awhile and I hope that maybe you could answer them if possible? Is Dr. Zachary related to Knuckles in any way? Or, was he just an echidna villain that had survived? Your reply would be much obliged ^_^. Hi Steffie Always nice to hear that somebody enjoys my writing - although it's going back a bit now. I'd never thought that Zachary was related to Knuckles he was just one of the echidna race. I don't really have a detailed back story for Zachary - I had some idea he was a criminal and had been imprisoned on the Floating Island in some kind of suspended animation or something. I'm not a big believer in creating a character then patiently developing a detailed back story. I like to think of (hopefully) exciting story ideas and then developing charters to tell that story. I like that creative freedom. Too many of my students have obsessively detailed 'stories' lots of complex world building and detailed characters - but what's the point if you have nothing to say? Other people I speak to think you should know your characters in minute detail - I'm not so sure. Not every detail of somebodies past is relevant to a specific moment in time and it's that moment in time you want to be interesting to a reader.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2012 19:33:15 GMT
Thank you very much for the quick reply, Mr. Kitching and for answering my question
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Post by curiousorange on Feb 20, 2012 0:40:17 GMT
This is a really interesting thread. I'm not on Twitter, so I'm not used to being able to talk to childhood heroes as if they were normal people (as if!)
I'd be interested to know if there were any specific sci-fi influences on the time travel stories in STC - TV shows, films, novels or comics. Sonic planting the egg, tripping Kintobor over the cord and creating Robotnik in 'The Return of Chaotix' might have been my introduction to that type of cause-and-effect time travel, and it blew my tiny mind. So thanks for that!
I first read 'The Sonic Terminator' (Sonic CD adaptation) a few years later, when it was reprinted, by which time my Sonic fandom had already been usurped by Red Dwarf. The cyclical 'now what did I say next? Oh yeah, "well this had better not be a trick."' 'Well this had better not be a trick' (etc.) time travel thing reminded me of RD episodes like 'Future Echoes' and 'The Inquisitor' (for any other nerds reading - oh hang on, this is a comic forum).
I had a bunch of the Red Dwarf Smegazines that Nigel wrote and drew, so I know you were familiar with the show - but it's not like Red Dwarf was the first show to use time travel. I've just always been curious about whether there was any crossover.
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Feb 20, 2012 10:14:21 GMT
This is a really interesting thread. I'm not on Twitter, so I'm not used to being able to talk to childhood heroes as if they were normal people (as if!) I'd be interested to know if there were any specific sci-fi influences on the time travel stories in STC - TV shows, films, novels or comics. Sonic planting the egg, tripping Kintobor over the cord and creating Robotnik in 'The Return of Chaotix' might have been my introduction to that type of cause-and-effect time travel, and it blew my tiny mind. So thanks for that! I first read 'The Sonic Terminator' (Sonic CD adaptation) a few years later, when it was reprinted, by which time my Sonic fandom had already been usurped by Red Dwarf. The cyclical 'now what did I say next? Oh yeah, "well this had better not be a trick."' 'Well this had better not be a trick' (etc.) time travel thing reminded me of RD episodes like 'Future Echoes' and 'The Inquisitor' (for any other nerds reading - oh hang on, this is a comic forum). I had a bunch of the Red Dwarf Smegazines that Nigel wrote and drew, so I know you were familiar with the show - but it's not like Red Dwarf was the first show to use time travel. I've just always been curious about whether there was any crossover. The Sonic Terminator time travel thing was very directly inspired by Red Dwarf's 'Future Echoes'. I love the way the same exchange of dialogue worked equally well from both time perspectives and I really wanted to see if I could write a similar thing. This idea sort of turned up again in the Doctor Who Weeping Angels thing which I also enjoyed. So yes, Red Dwarf was a big influence when it came to time travel stuff. Nothing else really springs to mind - I'd seen Back to the Future but I can't say this really affected me in my writing. There may be bit's of Doctor Who but I kind of doubt it - despite the fact he was travelling in time it actually wasn't aparent usually as he simply turned up on some alien world or other. I was lucky to get work on the Smegazine - I was a fan of the series so it was great fun. Did you see my 'Lister the God' story?
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Post by curiousorange on Feb 20, 2012 11:20:05 GMT
Thank you for the quick response! Yes, the 'Lister the God' story was the highlight - I also liked that it/you seemed to be inspired more by the novels than the TV show (the Clister/Cloister thing was from the books), back when early Red Dwarf episodes were all but inaccessible. I first came across the Smegazines second-hand in a local comic shop in the late 90s, and got a real sense of deja vu when I saw that art style. Otherwise, it was an extremely hit and miss publication. I saw someone post pdfs of all the Smegazines last year, and after searching just now they amazingly don't seem to have been taken down yet. Does this forum have rules against linking to copyright-infringing scans? Edit my post if that's the case, because here they all are: www.hassleinbooks.com/RedDwarf/(For anyone who wants to read Nigel's stuff, it's mostly in volume 2 - 'Lister the God' is v2 issues 1-3 I thiiiink).
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Tom
Ex-Hume
Hume-who-used-to-think-he-was-in-charge
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Post by Tom on Feb 20, 2012 17:25:32 GMT
Wow, never read these before. Cool!
What's with all the Robert Maxwell jokes??
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Feb 20, 2012 18:38:55 GMT
Wow, never read these before. Cool! What's with all the Robert Maxwell jokes?? He was a bad man
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Feb 20, 2012 18:40:09 GMT
Wow, never read these before. Cool! What's with all the Robert Maxwell jokes?? He was a bad man Also he was dead so he was a safe target
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Feb 20, 2012 18:59:20 GMT
When I did Red Dwarf I think there was still something of the 'fan writer' going on. It took STC to make me really think about what I was doing
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tony spike
New Boomer
walk softly and carry an armoured tank division I always say
Posts: 8
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Post by tony spike on Mar 3, 2012 18:04:21 GMT
hi their ....i too was a big fan of red dwarf back in the day although being as young as I was I didn't get to watch it as often as I should have liked ....
i too have always enjoyed your stories and their are a couple of things I would like to ask if you dont mind answering them
1.....are their any other red dwarf influenced storys/plotlines you didnt get chance to use that you would have loved to do (turning norris wimple into an ace rimmer type character would have been funny as hell ....but hes more like duane dibley now I come to think of it lol)
2 .....what were your views on personal faves of mine the marxio brothers ......i used to think those three and decap attack were hilarious
3 ...were hobson and choy ever meant to be more than one story long (i remember it saying continued next issue and the next issue a new story started ......i apologise though cos im not even sure if these two were yours or not)
and lastly ........did you ever write yourself into a corner (either by writing a story and having to make it more complicated than it should have been just to make it work ..or just not being able to come up with anything ) and and if so what were your main ways of trying to find the inspiration to get out of it/avoid it
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Mar 5, 2012 14:37:44 GMT
hi their ....i too was a big fan of red dwarf back in the day although being as young as I was I didn't get to watch it as often as I should have liked .... i too have always enjoyed your stories and their are a couple of things I would like to ask if you dont mind answering them 1.....are their any other red dwarf influenced storys/plotlines you didnt get chance to use that you would have loved to do (turning norris wimple into an ace rimmer type character would have been funny as hell ....but hes more like duane dibley now I come to think of it lol) 2 .....what were your views on personal faves of mine the marxio brothers ......i used to think those three and decap attack were hilarious 3 ...were hobson and choy ever meant to be more than one story long (i remember it saying continued next issue and the next issue a new story started ......i apologise though cos im not even sure if these two were yours or not) and lastly ........did you ever write yourself into a corner (either by writing a story and having to make it more complicated than it should have been just to make it work ..or just not being able to come up with anything ) and and if so what were your main ways of trying to find the inspiration to get out of it/avoid it I don't think there was anything else I consciously took from Red Dwarf. Norris Wimple is one of Lew's characters so I wouldn't ever think of using him. I thought the Marxio idea was pretty good when I came up with it. Kind of obvious to poke fun at the opposition I suppose. I think I kind of knew that a lot of the audience wouldn't know who the Marx Brothers were and this concerned me a little but I figures the Mario connection would be enough. I wrote myself into a corner many times. I liked to start a story with only a vague idea of the ending - sometimes no idea at all. More fun to have ideas for the end emerge as I wrote. If it was a six part story I needed to know the ending by about part four though. The one that sticks in my mind was that Ghost Ship story for Knuckles. I just couldn't come up with an ending I liked - but it seemed to work out okay in the end somehow. I would generally deal with these kinds of blocks by calling up either Rich or Nigel and asking for ideas. This helped sometimes but mainly in just giving me stuff to think about. I think I came up with my own endings but sometimes I needed to bounce ideas off somebody. Having said that I'll bet there are a couple of endings that Rich or Nigel gave to me.
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Post by sidewinder on Mar 6, 2012 23:42:29 GMT
Hi Nigel, just wanted to say what a great comic book writer you are, very influential. I have a question or two for you I hope you don't mind answering. You see I know you have not read the Archie comics, but re reading your knuckles back story and how you and Sega did not intend or want to get him back to his people made for a brilliant little story idea that could have been expanded and played with. It has potential for great emotional character development. How ever,If your were to look at the main writer for Archie sonic comics in the USA (Ken Panders). Its interesting to note how vastly different Knuckles back ground is , compared to yours and Segas. For one Knuckles is reunited with his people and lives in a modern utopia with his other echidnas and was only the guardian of the chaos emerald. Mr Penders built an entire comic series around Knuckles going through the hum drum normal life of accepting becoming a guardian and fighting a league of evil echidnas trying to get their hands on the master emerald. In short terrible story and setting for knuckles making him some what human and trying to hard to relate Knuckles to angst ridden teenagers. (In my opinion) it ruined the mythos of Knuckles mysterious back ground and doesn't run with Segas Idea of Knuckles mythos. 1: So did you manage to talk to Sega a lot more then frequently then the US, or have any idea of what direction the US counterpart were going with? as it looks like Archie Sonic comics would defiantly not get that story approved as it looks like it goes against what Sega wanted to do with the character of Knuckles. Question 2: as such Ken panders is now suing Archie and Sega and wants to create his own comic book biased around his knuckles mythos whilst using Sega's inspired characters and universe settings. he also suing EA games for apparently using his story used in a comic that was supposedly taken into a game. he claiming They all took his ideas and want to use his own graphic novel filled with echidna styled characters while being set some what in the sonic universe, whilst claiming Sega and Archie have no right to stop him or use his characters in future issues. I find this rich as he's trying to use a Sega insured work and universe to make his won characters and comic book series whilst expecting no one to take notice of where he got his ideas from or that you can't just put knuckles in a wig and call it a new and original idea for a character and say that it has clearly no relation to sega when they clearly do. in all I just wanted to hear for opinion on this, ( if you read it online its a dam good laugh ) 3: my personal question how did you like writing for Docotor Robotnik? did you enjoy playing with his character? and was his adventures of character design your preferred version over his new design? ( I know dobyn said he loved drawing Robotnik ) and lastly was there any plans to bring him back from the edge of sanity or come back bigger fatter and more larger then life then ever before? Sorry if these questions are long winded, but they keep me up at night . Much thanks.
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tony spike
New Boomer
walk softly and carry an armoured tank division I always say
Posts: 8
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Post by tony spike on Mar 7, 2012 13:03:48 GMT
hi their ....i too was a big fan of red dwarf back in the day although being as young as I was I didn't get to watch it as often as I should have liked .... i too have always enjoyed your stories and their are a couple of things I would like to ask if you dont mind answering them 1.....are their any other red dwarf influenced storys/plotlines you didnt get chance to use that you would have loved to do (turning norris wimple into an ace rimmer type character would have been funny as hell ....but hes more like duane dibley now I come to think of it lol) 2 .....what were your views on personal faves of mine the marxio brothers ......i used to think those three and decap attack were hilarious 3 ...were hobson and choy ever meant to be more than one story long (i remember it saying continued next issue and the next issue a new story started ......i apologise though cos im not even sure if these two were yours or not) and lastly ........did you ever write yourself into a corner (either by writing a story and having to make it more complicated than it should have been just to make it work ..or just not being able to come up with anything ) and and if so what were your main ways of trying to find the inspiration to get out of it/avoid it I don't think there was anything else I consciously took from Red Dwarf. Norris Wimple is one of Lew's characters so I wouldn't ever think of using him. I thought the Marxio idea was pretty good when I came up with it. Kind of obvious to poke fun at the opposition I suppose. I think I kind of knew that a lot of the audience wouldn't know who the Marx Brothers were and this concerned me a little but I figures the Mario connection would be enough. I wrote myself into a corner many times. I liked to start a story with only a vague idea of the ending - sometimes no idea at all. More fun to have ideas for the end emerge as I wrote. If it was a six part story I needed to know the ending by about part four though. The one that sticks in my mind was that Ghost Ship story for Knuckles. I just couldn't come up with an ending I liked - but it seemed to work out okay in the end somehow. I would generally deal with these kinds of blocks by calling up either Rich or Nigel and asking for ideas. This helped sometimes but mainly in just giving me stuff to think about. I think I came up with my own endings but sometimes I needed to bounce ideas off somebody. Having said that I'll bet there are a couple of endings that Rich or Nigel gave to me. yeah I totally got the marx brothers connection (i was an older reader by the time I rediscovered the comics) and adding the nintendo connection was genius .....i found their kind of wit to be the best in my opinion lol i always find that my story writing starts out going nowhere (i write storylines for an wrestling Efed in my spare time) ......so its actualy nice to know how professionals get round this thanks for answering my questions
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Post by Charles on Mar 7, 2012 21:51:00 GMT
I think I kind of knew that a lot of the audience wouldn't know who the Marx Brothers were and this concerned me a little but I figures the Mario connection would be enough. It was for me, I didn't get the Marx bit but I could tell it was a piss-take of The Enemy (and that Chicio was a silly billy).
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Mar 12, 2012 22:27:56 GMT
Hi Nigel, just wanted to say what a great comic book writer you are, very influential. I have a question or two for you I hope you don't mind answering. You see I know you have not read the Archie comics, but re reading your knuckles back story and how you and Sega did not intend or want to get him back to his people made for a brilliant little story idea that could have been expanded and played with. It has potential for great emotional character development. How ever,If your were to look at the main writer for Archie sonic comics in the USA (Ken Panders). Its interesting to note how vastly different Knuckles back ground is , compared to yours and Segas. For one Knuckles is reunited with his people and lives in a modern utopia with his other echidnas and was only the guardian of the chaos emerald. Mr Penders built an entire comic series around Knuckles going through the hum drum normal life of accepting becoming a guardian and fighting a league of evil echidnas trying to get their hands on the master emerald. In short terrible story and setting for knuckles making him some what human and trying to hard to relate Knuckles to angst ridden teenagers. (In my opinion) it ruined the mythos of Knuckles mysterious back ground and doesn't run with Segas Idea of Knuckles mythos. 1: So did you manage to talk to Sega a lot more then frequently then the US, or have any idea of what direction the US counterpart were going with? as it looks like Archie Sonic comics would defiantly not get that story approved as it looks like it goes against what Sega wanted to do with the character of Knuckles. Question 2: as such Ken panders is now suing Archie and Sega and wants to create his own comic book biased around his knuckles mythos whilst using Sega's inspired characters and universe settings. he also suing EA games for apparently using his story used in a comic that was supposedly taken into a game. he claiming They all took his ideas and want to use his own graphic novel filled with echidna styled characters while being set some what in the sonic universe, whilst claiming Sega and Archie have no right to stop him or use his characters in future issues. I find this rich as he's trying to use a Sega insured work and universe to make his won characters and comic book series whilst expecting no one to take notice of where he got his ideas from or that you can't just put knuckles in a wig and call it a new and original idea for a character and say that it has clearly no relation to sega when they clearly do. in all I just wanted to hear for opinion on this, ( if you read it online its a dam good laugh ) 3: my personal question how did you like writing for Docotor Robotnik? did you enjoy playing with his character? and was his adventures of character design your preferred version over his new design? ( I know dobyn said he loved drawing Robotnik ) and lastly was there any plans to bring him back from the edge of sanity or come back bigger fatter and more larger then life then ever before? Sorry if these questions are long winded, but they keep me up at night . Much thanks. 1. I hardly ever talked to Sega - a couple of meetings with somebody from Sega Europe that's all. I got my feedback from Sega via the editor and this feedback may well have come from Copyright Promotions (hired to safeguard the brand) and who knows if what I got was their interpretation of existing Sega information, based on a specific conversation of was just them using their judgment. I never asked and never took much interest. I know nothing of Archie and am happy for that to continue. 2. Yawn... (not directed at you personally, you understand) 3. Doctor Robotnik is a silly looking character that I tried to make as menacing as possible rather than making him a joke. We just changed the design when we were asked and I never thought much about a preference. If the comic had continued Robotnik would have been used in the stories but I never figured out how or what I would do with him. I enjoyed writing Robotnik just fine and I always remembered that he had to be a credible menace and not a buffoon.
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Post by sidewinder on Mar 18, 2012 17:24:48 GMT
Thanks Nigel appreciate that,. yeah the Ken Penders case is quite long winded and I guess toy can say boring if your not really into it ( he just made a mountain out of a mole hill ) And I have to say Good job on making Robotnik a credible Menacing villain, he was certainly the most evillest carnation of Robotnik to date. Id like to see him come back from his insanity in the online comic. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question:) My I ask who asked you to change the Robotnik design? Thank you once again
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Mar 19, 2012 18:41:59 GMT
Thanks Nigel appreciate that,. yeah the Ken Penders case is quite long winded and I guess toy can say boring if your not really into it ( he just made a mountain out of a mole hill ) And I have to say Good job on making Robotnik a credible Menacing villain, he was certainly the most evillest carnation of Robotnik to date. Id like to see him come back from his insanity in the online comic. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question:) My I ask who asked you to change the Robotnik design? Thank you once again That would have been the editor who would have been asked by Sega who may have forwarded the message through Copyright Promotions who Sega paid to take care of the brand. But didn't we change our Robotnik design more than once?
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Post by sidewinder on Mar 19, 2012 21:23:58 GMT
From what I remeber Robotnik started off as the SEGA one used in Sonic 1,2,3 and all the traditional games ( the simplistic cartoony one) then in issue 20 something he went into an egg and came out as The adventures of Sonic Robotnick.
And then I heard in the shanazar ark they wanted to change his look when he came back from Kintobor into his newer Sonic Adventure Design. Then apparently you guys didn't like it or did not want to change his look. (I could be totally wrong there just what I've heard from the inter web so do please correct me if im wrong or if I've taken anything out of context.)
Though towards the end of the comic Elson drew him wearing His Adventure outfit and he slightly changed in looks. so I guess that count's as changing twice not sure.
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Post by Nigel Kitching on Mar 20, 2012 12:04:33 GMT
From what I remeber Robotnik started off as the SEGA one used in Sonic 1,2,3 and all the traditional games ( the simplistic cartoony one) then in issue 20 something he went into an egg and came out as The adventures of Sonic Robotnick. And then I heard in the shanazar ark they wanted to change his look when he came back from Kintobor into his newer Sonic Adventure Design. Then apparently you guys didn't like it or did not want to change his look. (I could be totally wrong there just what I've heard from the inter web so do please correct me if im wrong or if I've taken anything out of context.) Though towards the end of the comic Elson drew him wearing His Adventure outfit and he slightly changed in looks. so I guess that count's as changing twice not sure. I can't really remember what happened but if Sega wanted us to change the way we drew Robotnik then we'd have done it.
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Post by sidewinder on Mar 20, 2012 14:36:16 GMT
As long as it wasn't the American Archie version yuck I really don't like that Robotnik. It was good to know At summer of Sonic last year Dobyn said he was one of his favourite characters to draw. I can see why.
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tony spike
New Boomer
walk softly and carry an armoured tank division I always say
Posts: 8
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Post by tony spike on Mar 21, 2012 0:15:57 GMT
As long as it wasn't the American Archie version yuck I really don't like that Robotnik. It was good to know At summer of Sonic last year Dobyn said he was one of his favourite characters to draw. I can see why. not keen myself ..but I have to admit in the sat am cartoon that robotnik was simply deliciously evil ....i loved him in that
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Post by sidewinder on Mar 21, 2012 10:41:19 GMT
As long as it wasn't the American Archie version yuck I really don't like that Robotnik. It was good to know At summer of Sonic last year Dobyn said he was one of his favourite characters to draw. I can see why. not keen myself ..but I have to admit in the sat am cartoon that robotnik was simply deliciously evil ....i loved him in that You see im the opposite sure people say he was the most darkest version as he took over the world. I can understand why. But to me he never really struck me as anything to majorly dark. but yet he never destroyed the Forrest where the freedom fighters lives. And then he wonders where they are hiding. If I was an evil dictator who took over the world and polluted everything the Forrest would be the first thing I would get rid off. If he did that then I would say he was evil. And it would make for an awesome episode. But hey thats just my opinion. Another thing thats funny to note, notice how SAT AM started off with a dark version of Robotnik but was taken into the comics and stared off as a fool, where as Adventures of Robotnik who is seen as one of the silliest incarnations was taken into the comics and turned out to be darker, its like a weird role reversal.
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Post by Fools in Miru on Jan 11, 2013 3:48:11 GMT
Is Rouge truly rotten to the core? Or does she have a good side?
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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Jan 11, 2013 8:49:40 GMT
Nigel's never written for Rouge, miru.
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Post by Charles on Jan 12, 2013 20:56:52 GMT
Who would win in a fight between Captain Plunder and A.H.A.B.?
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