Oh Yeah, File 2 Exists

Posted 08/28/25

In my Notes app, there's a Note called "COOPER BULLET: What went wrong?" It's essentially a collection of things I thought were mistakes that I should keep in mind when I made the next File.
Most of them are production related (File 3 is mainly about how I didn't have thumbnails and didn't plan ahead), but File 2 - Murder On Hold just has "This remains the black sheep in the series."

I hate File 2.

What happened with File 2? Why did it come out the way it did? Why is it so short and underwhelming? Why is the second File like this? Why why why why WHY so many things?
The reason is simple; the original plan for COOPER BULLET was to constantly pump out smaller, 7-16 page stories about Jenny and Arthur's lives, and then every once in a while come out with a big >30 page File that greatly advanced the story. I figured it would keep my workflow sane.
So File 2 was written with that in mind; it came from a small concept about Jenny interrupting Arthur who's in the middle of a job. I made it all in a week, and continued with what eventually became File 3 - Plan No Plan.

And then there was... nothing for File 2.

The comic came and went as easily as it was made. NOBODY thought anything of it, because there wasn't really anything in it to think about. Every time I gathered a cool panel collection from COOPER BULLET, rarely did I ever put panels from File 2 in it. It remains the only File in CB history to not be featured on Newgrounds' front page. It also didn't have an animated teaser like the others because there wasn't much to tease.
The short-stories-then-big-story formula was also doomed to fail in retrospect; if the stories had nothing much to do with the bigger narrative, then readers will—and rightfully so—dismiss them as filler, and only aim for the Big Ones(TM). Trying to counter this by putting important plot details in the tiny stories also defeated the purpose. Besides, CB was NOT the type of comic that fit this formula anyway.

And it remains sticking out like a sore thumb, that a year later I still don't even personally recommend it myself to people. lmao

I am in the midst of making File 5 - Kinder than Man. When that finishes, I want to write a blog post about what happened with THAT and why it took me a long time to finish, but yeah. While making it, I kept on thinking about the first-time CB reader's experience, and how any momentum File 1 might've set up was halted by File 2. It was not a good look.

So. I am making the grand decision that, after Files 5 and 6 (they are tied with each other) are done, I WILL REDO FILE 2. I will make it longer, extended, whatever, and it will replace the previous seven-page File 2. Ideally, it will be similar in tone with the playful, upbeat Robbery Gunchild, to offset the serious Plan No Plan and later the emotionally heavy Kinder than Man-Minumulto mini-duology.
The main objectives are:

That will maybe be in a year. That is, if I don't kill myself (figuratively FIGURATIVELY) by then.
Until then, please wait for File 5, it is the best thing I've written thus far. I know I say that with every File, but honestly, it just keeps on getting better.