tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11732902837645467202024-02-07T18:55:28.811+00:00From the BeginningStories to paper by any means necessary.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-77072712564058052502009-08-13T13:55:00.006+01:002009-08-13T14:20:24.175+01:00ResurrectionWith yet another false dawn gracing the sky it is time to dust off this here blog and attempt to return to a reasonable schedule. After some deliberation it has become clear that what I do isn't enough to solely warrant a blog for that purpose, so from now on I will be salting it with information I hope you will find interesting.<br /><br />Starting with some good news, I have in my possession final pages from my WORK anthology stories that I posted pencils and some inks for at the turn of the year (eight months ago - damn). They turned out really well, as you will hopefully see at the bottom of the post, and as my first short stories to be accepted and make it to completion, this makes me happy.<br /><br />Sadly however there is some bad news. The WORK anthology has yet to be picked up by a publisher. Although this isn't surprising given the economic climate and any number of other factors we could moan about, it is unfortunate that the excellent work of the creators doesn't seem like it will get the exposure it deserves. Though life doesn't have much to do with deserve does it? Fortunately there are other avenues to pursue and I know that the editors have already begun the process. Fingers crossed and if nothing comes of it I will be posting the two stories for free download on this blog, until then here are the final page 1's for both stories.<br /><br /><strong>Only a Miner Killed Page 01</strong><br />Art by Chris Fenoglio<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVvWfCKEzpqumh0yDER1570LNF-EFGFpMxhY_152e4WOrD02_OuvrY4i6P9J2xhrlUs309C3n-07JdPAuxfg0LiSmpnSIn-UbbL19TtMgGjfqe_DYIlnolRIALWApI1zFMk5f1gwcRHA/s1600-h/OAMKfinal01.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 210px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369435098598027618" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVvWfCKEzpqumh0yDER1570LNF-EFGFpMxhY_152e4WOrD02_OuvrY4i6P9J2xhrlUs309C3n-07JdPAuxfg0LiSmpnSIn-UbbL19TtMgGjfqe_DYIlnolRIALWApI1zFMk5f1gwcRHA/s320/OAMKfinal01.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Maggie's Farm Page 01</strong><br />Co-written with Tim Twelves<br />Art by Mike Hall<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPsZRSCYl5jtXnSkHKhLwkseSKT_kIO7QTkZP3rb-pyPSS0RvtoKFFfxD5hOE3nqcJhkUoHJjRw7QvycovFs7NV9cx7lgxCuCVTLxX5g5sRtlth7sN73J2V8O7KpIRi9_van1xe_suVg/s1600-h/page01_preview.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 226px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369435626983093122" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPsZRSCYl5jtXnSkHKhLwkseSKT_kIO7QTkZP3rb-pyPSS0RvtoKFFfxD5hOE3nqcJhkUoHJjRw7QvycovFs7NV9cx7lgxCuCVTLxX5g5sRtlth7sN73J2V8O7KpIRi9_van1xe_suVg/s320/page01_preview.jpg" /></a>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-37849832583529247772009-05-18T11:42:00.003+01:002009-05-18T12:15:15.604+01:00All fall downAside from the not-exactly-inconsequential matter of two months of no posting, the train seems to have been, if not derailed, then certainly shunted off the main track. My search for an artist for Heartless has thus far proved fruitless (ha!) and the experience has taught me much about the process, stuff that only getting-beat-down-regularly is willing to teach. He is a harsh taskmaster.<br /><br />As a result I have siphoned my creative energies off in two different directions, namely two new stories called, for the moment, Broken Hearted and Signal. With Heartless as a guide I've made good progress on both, having almost fully broken down Signal to the point where I can write script pages. Broken Hearted is a little more in the can-I-do-this and if-so-how phase, trying to work through story and world problems that have resulted mostly from the setting.<br /><br />What I have noticed is that most of the story ideas I want to develop incline toward science fiction, Warren Ellis aside there doesn't seem to be a great inclination within comics to write interesting science fiction and part of me would like to see that change. Another part of me would rather it stayed that way so I can corner the market but seeing as I can't-even-find-an-artist at present, perhaps I'm being a little optimistic. Or, you know, wildly, idiotically optimistic. <br /><br />Apologies for the hyphen madness, it was intentional.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-56224387414672386882009-03-07T23:05:00.003+00:002009-03-07T23:14:59.637+00:00Under the RadarAn update! After two weeks of escape and evasion I have returned with news. Heartless is currently picking up some solid momentum, though it's taken longer than I hoped (doesn't everything) I have winnowed the beast down to a four issue mini-series as the final story in a larger world. To continue the arse-backwards theme I have managed to write a first draft of #2, don't get me started, as well as all the scene breakdowns for the other three issues. The bible has been updated and I should be posting some more snippets, he says crossing his toes and rubbing the lucky rifle badge, in the not-to-distant future. It will also signal open season on unsuspecting artists who want to draw city samurai and psychodelic dream worlds. The point of no return beckons.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-39999265254753294322009-02-19T23:44:00.002+00:002009-02-19T23:47:56.839+00:00Writing ain't (:)) easyIf it is easy then I'd be concerned. I struggle to write, everyday is about wondering whether I’ll make the connections in a story and be able to write about it. No doubt I’m not alone in this. Everyone’s been in a place where you just stare at the screen for an age without managing to add anything of value. I know there are all kinds of theories for getting on; leaving the piece at a point where you’ve got more to write, doing a prescribed amount of work then stopping no matter what, finishing in the middle of a sentence you can pick up next time you sit down to write etc. The problem for me is if I’m on a roll, writing for all I’m worth, then I don’t want to stop. It seems like the easy option to say ‘Done my bit for the day’ when it’s evident to myself, if no-one else, the words are ready, willing and able to continue. But by the same token, writing until you’re flush out of ideas/inspiration, leaving yourself a flickering screen full of frustration next visit, isn’t exactly ideal either. Hence the dilemma.<br /><br />Personally I’m beginning to find that sitting down to write only becomes unbearably difficult when I don’t have a plan. Writing the script isn’t easy, but it’s the easiest part of the process because by that stage the story is fully planned out, broken down into manageable chunks and all the dots have been joined. Getting to that stage is where all the effort and frustration come in; teasing threads of story out of the loosest connections, melding characters based on a feeling, throwing away bits you like that don't work, this is the skill of a writer and it ain't easy.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-51413043271728198432009-02-14T00:49:00.003+00:002009-02-14T00:55:06.262+00:00Diamond's not a creator's best friendIn case you haven’t heard already the comic mountain’s gotten a little steeper in the last week to ten days. Diamond Comics Distributor Inc., the distributor for pretty much all of North America’s comic books and other associated merchandise is raising its minimums. Instead of the current standard whereby every item would be expected to earn the distributor $1500 before it would be offered through the direct market, Diamond has raised the standard to $2500. This equates to a significant two-thirds increase. People smarter than myself have crunched the numbers and pointed to the fact this now means for an item to justify its listing in Diamond's Previews catalogue, from which retailers order the vast majority of their stock, that item would now have to make $6250 retail. In other words OUCH!<br /><br />Realistically I haven’t made a published comic yet, but while this is still down the list of issues to worry about in terms of progression, it is by far the biggest. I can honestly say it worries me no end. I’m still going to make comics and this will unquestionably make me raise my game because the stakes have gone up. It also mean though, there is no room for error and you may need lady luck on your side a bit more too. When even popular, award-winning creators and products step away from the industry due to this turn of events, it says loud and clear that there is absolutely no learning period for new creators. Got a quirky little gem hoping to find a niche? Good luck with that. With a lot more on the line every time a project is conceived I think a major concern for the industry has to be that the type of title on offer doesn’t narrow to spandex and superhero derivatives. There’s far too many of them about as it is and the loss of range in the indie and alternative comics sections would be a real disaster for creativity. Or, if you like, the potential for creativity with people thinking in a narrower mindset.<br /><br />Tom Spurgeon’s article at the Comics Reporter <a href="http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/why_diamonds_new_minimums_policy_is_wrong_and_what_they_should_do_about_it/"target="_blank">here</a> explains why this situation is bad far better than I can. I guess all eyes will be on the DM for the foreseeable future, to understand what exactly the changes mean and how it will affect the industry.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-22042233834089346152009-02-08T18:45:00.002+00:002009-02-08T18:49:30.455+00:00Breaking it downI was lucky enough to get a look at another writer’s, <a href="http://www.digitalapocalypse.com/" target="_blank">Chad Michael Ward</a>, project bible a few weeks ago. I have started one for Heartless, as you may have seen below, but as with all things <em>writing</em> his and mine were quite different. What I found most interesting were his scene breakdowns. Working as I had been in beats within a single issue (or the equivalent of page wise), I was used to smaller units of story at that stage. Seeing five or six large blocks of story with specific beats inside, as the scene breakdowns were, made a whole lot more sense. Although technically it is adding another stage to the process, what it does do is allow a smoother breakdown from a single paragraph for that block of story, to several segments that make it easier to script.<br /><br />Luckily this came before I’d fully understood and broken down Heartless’ storyline, so that issues 2-4 and possibly 5 if there is one, are going to be easier to work out. Looking at how it works now, it seems like an obvious step, which makes me wonder what else I’m missing on the road to a final draft. Obviously learning is part of the process and in some cases can only be achieved by doing, but I am concerned that I may not have enough of the theory and basics in my head to think I can write a decent script at this moment. That’s not going to stop me trying but [note to self] I’m going to try and spend an equal amount of time reading up on writing.<br /><br />So if anyone does have suggestions on good books/articles/resources, please let me know.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-53788964525849058282009-02-06T00:58:00.004+00:002009-02-06T01:15:27.558+00:00Back with a BitchMy best intentions were defeated by a series of shitty events called Life. It tends to get in the way of planning occasionally and last month it chose to obstruct me no end. So rather than write I ended up doing critiques of other creator’s writing they'd sent me, something that ended up being both enoyable and valuable. The crazy thing about looking at someone else’s work is how clear everything seems to be up to a certain level. Why a medium shot here when a wide shot gives much more scope to the artist, do you need a caption there? etc Removed from the involvement of creation, analysis seems comparatively easy. I guess that's why there are so many critics :)<br /><br />I’ve found it quite enlightning, both in gaining knowledge of how to tell my stories and understanding how narrow-sighted the initial creation process is. Given my own scripts to analyse in the same way I would fail miserably because I have not yet become as discerning and dispassionately cutthroat about my own work as I can be about others. Inevitably you’re attached to your work while it’s being formed, or I imagine you should be, so one of the hardest things to do is judge it’s worth commensurate with your present ability. Harder still is that I like my stories and the frustration that I’m not able to just sit down and put the whole piece to bed in one sitting, kills me sometimes.<br /><br />Partly, I think my attention span has just dwindled badly since university, my own fault no doubt, and also I haven’t found a means that I’m happy with of turning story idea into script quickly enough to not get distracted or frustrated. Despite my lengthy process post earlier, it’s not proving as fertile and conducive as I’d like. But I have recently found out a few things that helped in altering ‘my way’ and I’ll detail these later in the week. [/End Bitch … hopefully]Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-6764604965065998262009-01-24T12:46:00.002+00:002009-01-24T12:51:11.150+00:00Back Soon<span style="font-size:130%;">Blog Under Reconstruction - Back Soon</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br />Just doing a bit of fiddling under the hood. I wanted to see if I could maintain a blog and I'm kinda happy I can, so now I want to pimp it out.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-17116511293779739502009-01-15T23:34:00.003+00:002009-01-15T23:40:07.593+00:00Heartless the Workblog part 4Another workblog update, the last five days have been slow going apart from a gradually building Heartless momentum that will hopefully mean something more interesting to post soon. Until something shiny appears this is a brief catch-up on some of the issues I'm having.<br /><br /><strong>Problems:</strong><br /><br />Threw out the high concept until I can say something that immediately grabs you, citing influences is all well and good but if very few people have heard of them it defeats the object completely.<br /><br />The dream plane name and idea is too bland, I’m thinking of renaming it the One Dream as a start. All names of characters are made up because I liked the sounds, not exactly the scientific method I know, I haven’t yet looked into what they mean and whether I’ve called a character dog poo through my lack of research. Googling as I type.<br /><br />Most of all though the sword is giving me issues because I can’t fit it into what I need it to be … yet. It may take a little grease and simply ignoring a certain problem with how it works, though I’m hoping not. I’m also struggling a little with the whole heart thing, I wonder where Mari puts it while he is out hunting. They must have found some method of sustaining it during the night.<br /><br />Have also discovered my fight-scene-fu is weak and am spending too long breaking them down. May avoid one in particular for now, I know how it starts and ends so I can fill in the details once the rest is locked down ... I hope.<br /><br />On a separate thought trail I started a bible for Heartless today to keep track of a lot of detail, which may only be seen in passing in the actual comic but I hope will add a level of depth to the story. I'm also worryingly discarding a lot of ideas I like, they don't fit the story and I know that, having tried to force them in, but I'm hoping they'll find a home in other Tales of the Two Planes stories.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-50376021795268134602009-01-10T13:35:00.003+00:002009-01-10T13:53:41.596+00:00The Writing HabitWhilst browsing the nethernet today I was introduced by <a href="http://cryptobadger.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bryan Richmond </a>to an article in Locus Magazine on <a href="http://craphound.com/" target="_blank">Cory Doctorow's</a> techniques for managing/avoiding distraction whilst writing in the web age, full article <a href="http://www.locusmag.com/Features/2009/01/cory-doctorow-writing-in-age-of.html">here</a>.<br /><br />To borrow <a href="http://www.witchdoctorcomic.com/" target="_blank">Brandon Seifert's </a>summary of the article, Doctorow's techniques look like this:<br /><br /><ol><li>Make a short, regular work schedule. He shoots for one page, 20 minutes of writing a day, seven days a week. When he does a page a day for a year. he's written more than a full novel. And he can always find 20 minutes. </li><li>Don't go over your goal. Even if you want to. Because if you force yourself not to, then the next day you'll be dying to pick it up again (I've received this advice before). </li><li>Don't stop writing to research something. Throw in a "TK" ("to come") in its place and leave it for later </li><li>Don't try to control your writing environment. Just write. </li><li>Don't use a word-processor. Use a text editor. It's less distracting. </li><li>Don't use real-time communication tools while you write. They just distract you.</li></ol><p>They are for the most part common sense, but things you likely don't do. Personally I'm going to try and adapt the parts that would be advantageous to me, particularly the page a day idea - my writing production is all over the place at present. However, some of the advice I'd struggle with because no matter how ingrained it became, letting a juicy idea wait until the nexy day or not writing a passage that's perfectly clear in my head would be next to impossible for me. I'd HAVE to write it down. On the flip side, perhaps that's a part of my problem. </p>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-75732807946450192422009-01-08T22:10:00.002+00:002009-01-08T22:12:12.361+00:00Heartless the Workblog part 3Last one for the moment - Cast and Problems coming soon.<br /><br /><b>Set Up</b>:<br />This is the legacy of the Dreamer, Torikami, his story will be one of the Tales of the Two Planes, the rough title I came up with as a way of getting around those damn search engines and as a framework for a few different semi-related pieces that sprang from what I’ve discarded so far from this.<br /><br />Torikami is the original dreamer, the entire dream world exists within his dream thus making him undisputed lord. However, so big has the dream plane become that the original dream can no longer support it. It now requires a constant source of fresh dreams to continue to exist. Dreams quickly diminish when taken from the human dreamers so the dream plane is constantly eating itself, eternally needing new dreams to maintain and renew itself. Expansion of the dream plane is now nothing more than wishful thinking.<br /><br />Until the coming of Orash, the denizens of the dream plane collected the dreams themselves from sleeping humans, though it pained them to do so, making it a haphazard, piecemeal affair. Orash initially added order and stability to the dream collection, creating <i>Collectors</i> that could exist in both planes. But the Dreamer feared the power such a position granted and recruited a group of humans, through their dreams, to be the <i>Balance</i>. They are gifted with the ability to see and interact with the dream plane, a trait passed down to their offspring to continue the role. Working in tandem with the <i>Collectors</i>, the humans maintained the balance between planes, when you ‘slept without dreams,’ it is because they were taken to renew the dream plane. Should the volume of dreams entering the dream plane become too great, sections of it would solidify and merge with reality. In response to the <i>Balance</i>, Orash recruited his own human agents, including the Dream Weavers and the Shield.<br /><br />Be under no illusion though, the Dreamer cares nothing for Reality beyond continuing to renew the Dream plane. As long as Orash constantly supplies the required volume of dreams, then his methods do not interest the Dreamer, unless they should come to threaten the Dream Plane. Orash understands this and over the millennia has been, slowly at first, collecting more dreams than required and storing them in his fortress (formerly just a place to collect the dreams) next to the bridge to Reality, in order to achieve the eventual merging of the city with his fiefdom. This would give him and his people what he feels is their ‘right’, direct access to the dreams.<br /><br />Opposing him stands Tajitsu the last living member of the <i>Balance</i> and wielder of the <i>Dragon’s Dream</i>. The <i>Dragon’s Dream </i>is a fabled dream blade that no human can hold. The sword exists in both planes and thus allows the dream being who wields it to walk in both, granting the finality of the real world in the dream plane and the abilities of the dream plane in the real world. In order to control and use the blade Tajitsu has to be literally ‘heartless’. However the sword comes with a price, not only must his heart be removed daily (it’s fucking painful every time, thick scar tissue on his chest, over the heart – taking it out with Mari becomes ritualised) but the blade is slowly draining his humanity, whilst constantly standing between the two planes is robbing him of his sanity.<br /><br />I love Greek mythology and as per many of those stories, this one does not end well. In essence it’s the story of a hero on the verge of a breakdown, whose life is irrevocably shattered and who falls into darkness.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-9361781063492929762009-01-08T22:04:00.003+00:002009-01-08T22:10:05.906+00:00Heartless the Workblog part 2<b>Inspiration:</b><br /><br />Whilst working on another piece called Broken Hearted there was a thread on here about titles and how they work, or don’t, with the Amazon search engine. Given Broken Hearted as a title is likely to drown me in more Mills & Boon than anyone can rightfully expect to survive in a dozen lifetimes, I started playing with alternatives. The piss poor, and likely worse, Heartless immediately came to mind but was quickly discarded for obvious reasons. It did flip one of those random switches in my head though and two images popped out. The first was a samurai style warrior who had to remove his heart, which he gave to his love, in order to do what needed to be done. The second image was the first page of the first issue, no clue how they fitted together or even if it would work but you know, fuck it, it looked good in my head. So I wrote the first page and a bit down, using placeholder panel descriptions and it came out looking like this (the demons became the Collectors later):<br /><br />___________________________________________________<br /><quote url="" source="">Heartless #1 D1<br /><br />Page 1<br />All page width panels<br /><br />1<br />Establishing shot. Over head view of a night scene in a large oriental city (think Tokyo) with neon lights and sky scrapers. There’s something wrong with the picture though, black smudges (our demons) – like speed blurs – are visible across rooftops, looking in windows etc<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />2<br />Closer in on some of the lower rooftops and residential buildings, we see a large, shadowy demon with red eyes as it’s halfway through a section of wall close to the roof of a flat-topped building with fire escape. It’s stopped as the left side of its ‘body’ is already through the wall, looking straight back at us. [describe building in detail!]<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br /><br />3<br />Same shot but pull it back so we can see what the demon is staring at. The demon is pulling its left side back out of the wall because we’re looking at the back of a small, lean man in flowing oriental robes (lots of red with dragon designs and gold filigree) with a long, narrow sword in a plain, dark wood scabbard. Tajitsu!. The hilt is giving off a red glow/aura. [detail!]<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />4<br />Taj reaches back with his right hand and grabs the sword handle. The world around him has now changed drastically. All the real world objects – buildings, wires, billboards etc have faded and crazy things intermingle, overlay and work around them. There are dragons in the sky, ancient buildings in the gaps between the real ones, the roof Taj stands on is now a neatly cropped field full of bamboo trees and although the building is visible, it is faint and there is ivy crawling all over it with a four armed monkey hanging off the fire escape, which has become a red tree. This is our dream world merged with reality thanks to the Dragon’s Dream (the sword – shitty name?). The demon has lost its black shape and is now clearly defined. [Work out what demons look like, not homogenous but characteristically similar.]<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />5<br />The demon charges, a silent terror (side on shot showing that Tajitsu hasn’t moved yet, despite the size and speed of the demon, which clearly towers over Taj.)<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br /><br />Page 2<br /><br />1<br />As the demon body falls to the floor, sprouting a vivid red ‘blood’ from having been chopped to pieces, Taj remains in exactly the same position as the last panel of the previous page, except a small section of the sword blade is visible in the scabbard and is dripping blood, with splashes over the nearest bamboo stalk/tree - research! He is that damn fast.</quote><br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />__________________________________________________<br /><br />Over the course of the following week absolutely loads of details came to me about who the samurai warrior was, his journey and why on earth would he take his heart out. It started with a dream.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-10548461265229168532009-01-08T21:52:00.005+00:002009-01-08T22:04:50.217+00:00Heartless the Workblog part 1So I started a workblog at <a href="http://www.panelandpixel.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=PANELANDPIXEL&msg=1928.1" target="_blank">Panel and Pixel </a>because as previously mentioned there have been a few really interesting ones set up there recently. The goal being to make me finish the project, there's nothing like the thought of stuffing up and not following through in a forum full of professionals and soon-to-be's to focus the mind. Just starting it up made me think in more detail about certain aspects of the story, how to explain ideas concisely and what exactly was missing from what I'd already done. Don't think I nailed either part but if nothing else it is a start and something to build on. Here's where I am so far:<br /><br />Putting up or shutting up, as B. Clay Moore said in his comicsbulletin interview - Do The Work. So here we go, the old familiar new format, bastardised from Jimmie and Brandon with apologies to both for not being quite as good at it.<br /><br /><b><u>Tales of the Two Planes: Heartless </u></b>by Owen Jones and (any artist interested - email me)<br />Action / Myth / Tragedy<br /><br /><b>Format</b>: Standard comic book, colour – may need to seek other format if pitches are unsuccessful.<br /><b>Length</b>: Tentatively Five issues<br /><b>Distribution</b>: Comic direct market for singles, wider book distribution for trades<br /><b>Audience</b>: Teen to adult, comic violence.<br /><b>Production</b>: Sometime in 2009 dependent on artist and eventual format.<br /><b>Publisher</b>: Still researching, small indy is likely my best bet at this stage.<br /><b>Goal</b>: Make the story-come-myth I enjoy reading myself.<br /><br /><b>Pitch</b> (lengthy at present – just getting it set in my head):<br /><br />Tajitsu is the <i>Balance</i>. Formerly a large group of warriors set against the Demon Lord, Orash Dream- Stealer, the <i>Balance</i> used to control the <i>Collectors,</i> creatures Orash unleashes to steal the City’s dreams. Now that duty falls to just the one man and the burden is taking its toll. However, Tajitsu wields the <i>Dragon’s Dream</i>, one of the most feared dream weapons, a blade that grants any dream being the finality of the real world in the dream plane and the abilities of the dream plane in the real world. Problem being Tajitsu isn’t a dream being, so he must remove his heart and give it to his soul mate, Mari, and rely on the blade to sustain him until his hunting is done. But the blade is driving him insane and Orash is about to attempt to merge the two planes.<br /><br /><i>High Pitch Concept</i>: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (The Blizzard) meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-15538653957990396382009-01-01T20:30:00.012+00:002009-01-01T21:11:40.334+00:00Start as you mean to go onMore Artwork! As part of the WORK! Anthology I wrote two rough drafts for a piece called Maggie's Farm incredibly loosely based on the Bob Dylan song (more the title actually). I couldn't quite nail it so Tim took over, trying to make the script presentable and that was that ... until today. I wasn't really expecting to see anything from the piece until the final version because I felt it was Tim's story, good guy that he is though (for an Englishman :)) he sent me the first three pages of pencils with a little ink and lettering thrown in. Great way to start the new year, hope you enjoy them.<br /><p></p><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXwRyjHWv7ZecifR4xqlf-R-65zsKtivNcZ5WvIW0KLnuROFqR4M2E3fPM04MfTrlboL1L_ItNRSyY6l7Q62xXOCN_X2M80NRyfTpzt5fB6fEy8-G53XJOvm7iwN-g9hT3i1EAO620cM/s1600-h/maggiesfarm01.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286435204378164450" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 227px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXwRyjHWv7ZecifR4xqlf-R-65zsKtivNcZ5WvIW0KLnuROFqR4M2E3fPM04MfTrlboL1L_ItNRSyY6l7Q62xXOCN_X2M80NRyfTpzt5fB6fEy8-G53XJOvm7iwN-g9hT3i1EAO620cM/s320/maggiesfarm01.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvQThBX-5PP23UMglpHd_gk2vtbi9fBFZIWS2hemTmwa7mLpyKZq5S9EkMxP68ISll6BD-zgtdNrRmqCsWQbOLQmY7R_w6jw4_i_Pz25dKigVEDcElXqTElJuPz2WUaeCGsjliA4HBH8/s1600-h/maggiesfarm02.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286434791742250354" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 227px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvQThBX-5PP23UMglpHd_gk2vtbi9fBFZIWS2hemTmwa7mLpyKZq5S9EkMxP68ISll6BD-zgtdNrRmqCsWQbOLQmY7R_w6jw4_i_Pz25dKigVEDcElXqTElJuPz2WUaeCGsjliA4HBH8/s320/maggiesfarm02.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p></p><br /><p></p><br /><p></p><br /><p></p><br /><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vQ-nVgFLRp8W5mlP5v9GDgwg0TbLVkr9mO_GiAQAM5W2P2Rr51v1YW3Dy-nI0H3Ja6xsmJshmYW47tNO4dIIDT6Gtoeuopj2c5D1xOw-aiXX4cu7QZpyX92KEnyk8N5qjNKsVS0LqTs/s1600-h/maggiesfarm03.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286434423008234466" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 227px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3vQ-nVgFLRp8W5mlP5v9GDgwg0TbLVkr9mO_GiAQAM5W2P2Rr51v1YW3Dy-nI0H3Ja6xsmJshmYW47tNO4dIIDT6Gtoeuopj2c5D1xOw-aiXX4cu7QZpyX92KEnyk8N5qjNKsVS0LqTs/s320/maggiesfarm03.JPG" border="0" /></a></p>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-20534638924031847712008-12-31T20:03:00.001+00:002008-12-31T20:06:05.068+00:00New Year’s ResolutionsThis year’s are going to be pretty simple and straight forward I think, they look like this:<br /><ol><li>Talk less</li><li>Work more</li><li>Get into print<br /></li></ol>I like talking about comics, I like thinking about comics, particularly my own, but it takes up time that I could be using to MAKE comics. Clear enough distinction I believe. ‘Work more’ is simply a case of keeping my nose to the grind stone, making sure that I do work for the two hours a day I set aside for comics. Anything less means resistance is winning big time. Everyone wants to get into print, add me to the list! I love seeing art appear from the scripts I’ve written, finished pieces even more so, which means having something to hold of my own is the major goal for this coming year.<br /><br />Happy New Year to you all, let’s make it a good one.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-35396183565484293982008-12-27T22:35:00.003+00:002008-12-27T22:44:05.805+00:00HeartlessInspiration strikes! Went on a complete writing spree today. I wrote roughly fifteen pages of a first draft for a story idea, called Heartless, I thought I’d have trouble getting off the ground. Have to give some credit to Jimmie Robinson whose workblog at <a href="http://www.panelandpixel.com/forum/" target="_blank">Panel and Pixel </a>was a genuine kick in the pants. Hanging around ideas for ever and a day isn't healthy, get them down, get them out and move on to the next one. The fact that he could put a good part of the idea together so quickly smacked the hell out of a serial procrastinator like myself and, suitably admonished, I started researching the difficult idea. Unlike other misguided forays, ‘research’ this time around meant locating some valuable information, not boobies, though the science for it is still melting my brain cell – anyone know a good physics teacher?<br /><br />From the success of the research and some quick structural wins, rare enough to warrant a suitable pause should celestial bodies then wish to dump on me, my fingers tapped their way happily into several fun pieces of dialogue and a finish I’m well chuffed with. Though I still find myself fighting not to use dialogue as an ‘in’ to a scene, which often leads to the inevitable act of getting carried away writing he-said-she-said, today I managed to strike a decent balance. More than that I have an estimated outline of five issues, possibly four given the one issue seems to be a little vague, the beats for each issue and almost a complete draft for #1. Plus I watched a bloody great rugby game. Today was a good day.<br />I’m off down the pub.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-66278418355366797842008-12-25T14:08:00.005+00:002008-12-25T14:13:27.702+00:00Blogging from my christmas pantsWith apologies to Matt Fraction for the title :)<br /><br /><div>Christmas Comic Goodies!</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yeZUYg6uYqT7t_YLIFTvg2-1unWMdPFchQ930XiVW8B1qLQ0tfQzILOYYrkx_tB7B16g4sPgccpZcjPlW9sk4vz6r9Cf4EauKO2TfxpgRhCgXD16tX23jgNwHTxWio_A3lMbU_DwvVE/s1600-h/P1010206t.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283730428714783794" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1yeZUYg6uYqT7t_YLIFTvg2-1unWMdPFchQ930XiVW8B1qLQ0tfQzILOYYrkx_tB7B16g4sPgccpZcjPlW9sk4vz6r9Cf4EauKO2TfxpgRhCgXD16tX23jgNwHTxWio_A3lMbU_DwvVE/s320/P1010206t.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /></div>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-30776146018317847492008-12-24T18:32:00.002+00:002008-12-24T18:37:48.280+00:00Happy Holidays<div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Merry Christmas to one and all. </span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.poofcat.com/christmas.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="http://www.poofcat.com/christmas.jpg" border="0" /></a></div>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-58631004267771481922008-12-21T16:32:00.002+00:002008-12-21T16:38:32.406+00:00The Economy BitesA preferred comics retailer has this sign up. <br /><br /><em>As of today (December 8th 2008) our comic supplier has increased their prices, as such we have had to review and raise our prices accordingly. <br />As a gesture of goodwill to our customers, anyone who has pre-ordered their comics and graphic novels at the previously listed price will have their orders honoured at those prices, this applies to all subscription additions and advance orders placed before the 8th December. <br />The price increase will not be applied to existing ongoing subscription comics until March 2009, but any new titles added from now on will be charged at the new price listed.</em><br /><br />I managed to read it AFTER buying my comics, my own stupid fault no doubt and credit to them for being good to their regular custom. But it does make you wonder when DVDs and books are becoming ever cheaper, even the new releases, and you can pick up quality trades for around £5, Brian Wood’s <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Northlanders-Sven-Returned-v/dp/1845769929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229877343&sr=1-1"target="_blank">Northlanders</a> for example, what will happen to the general interest in comics. I haven’t seen any figures but I’d think with the success of recent comic book movies now would be the time to capitalise on it through the floppies. Except for that pesky recession.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-87197621394321719612008-12-16T19:35:00.002+00:002008-12-16T19:48:03.513+00:00IdeasThe problem with being able to choose any idea from all the various ones percolating upstairs, is that you can get caught finishing exactly none of them. Focus is a word bandied around often without any real thought to the specific types of application in which it should be used. As regards ideas for myself, it means not being distracted by the latest shiny eureka-moment that comes along, because it may or may not be an idea worth pursuing.<br /><br />Egotistically I believe many of my ideas are worth using but in reality, and in time with experience, it will no doubt prove to be narcissim. Until I reach that point though it is a challenge to avoid the siren call of possibilities. Yesterday, for instance, I had a quick flash image for a type of story I wouldn't normally consider. The hook, which came to be instantly, is unique as far as I know (which admittedly doesn't say much) and offered several further ideas that really got me thinking. But therein lies the problem, I should have been putting the finishing touches to an 8 page anthology piece. Not a hangable offense certainly, however it is something that would cause problems when I do end up against a deadline. Sorting out how I want to approach new ideas now will hopefully help me further down the road. You can't pitch unfinished ideas after all.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-7185785100084610992008-12-15T23:33:00.006+00:002008-12-16T00:34:48.318+00:00Learning to write, Writing to learnCarrying on from the talk of process and applying it more directly to a piece of work, here are the first two pages from the final script of ‘Oh Only a Miner Killed' to compare with Chris’ pencils I posted <a href="http://www.owen-h-jones.com/2008/12/actual-comics.html"target="_blank">a few days ago</a>. Below I’ve also added my very shoddy thumbnails for the two pages, to help whoever the artist was going to be to get a vague idea of what I was looking for. Luckily for Chris :) he never got to see the thumbnails as Tim told him to just go for it and draw the hell out of the script. Great editor’s decision right there! Because this was where I learnt just how good an artist can make you, as a writer, look. It also shows the enjoyment gained from the collaborative process, of seeing your script in ways new and exciting. For me personally it was a real buzz to see the pencils, recognising many of the small details in the script Chris nailed and also seeing how his change of angle in particular made the story far more visually interesting than I had originally imagined. <br /><br /><a href="http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1793/pages12tr1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 390px; height: 268px;" src="http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1793/pages12tr1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><em><strong>Oh Only A Miner Killed</strong> <br /><br /><strong>Page 1</strong><br /><br />All the external shots take place on a typical Welsh winter morning, which is to say dark, gloomy and raining heavily enough to give Noah the yips. It’s harsh and unrelenting, symbolising the miners’ lives. First page is seven panels, a row of two then a row of three, then another row of two. (see thumbnail page 1) <br /><br />Panel 1: <br />Exterior establishing shot of a Welsh mining town in the early 1900’s. I’d like something like this http://www.data-wales.co.uk/valley1.jpg with the terraced houses on the valley side close to the plant, but feel free to use this list of Welsh coal mines http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Photo.htm or any other image if it works better. I’m not too bothered by a specific location as most of the story takes place in the mine.<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 2: <br />Interior shot of a small bedroom where Mrs Jones, a beaten-down-by-life mother in her mid-thirties is waking two young boys (Michael 13 and Jonathan 11). Michael is a stern looking, dark-haired young man. Jonathan is the happy, younger son and apple of his mother’s eye. They are to look at polar opposites. The boys are sharing a bed and there is a large grandfather type clock in the room showing 5am. Jonathan is our protagonist. <br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />For the next horizontal row I imagined panels 3-5 as a single image split into three with the boys moving along it. The single image is of the first four houses of a terraced row, called Mill Lane, descending numerically left-to-right, which is next to a road. The Jones’ live at No 4, No’s 1-3 are also visible with the road on the very right hand side of the image. Lots of miners use this street to get to work. [I’ve highlighted the boys in yellow in the thumbnail to try and show what I imagined in case the following description isn’t clear] <br /> <br />Panel 3: <br />I want to show their mother seeing the boys off in this panel. So in the centre of the panel the boys are standing outside their front door in the rain, breath visible in the cold morning air while Mrs Jones stands in the doorway, door only slightly ajar (make sure the number 4 is clear on the door please), handing them both their lunches in brown paper bags. They’re dressed like this: <br />http://static.flickr.com/81/256947931_620909a226_o.jpg only with the heavy coats seen in the top picture here: http://www.snolabor.org/images/coal2.jpg <br />At the very left of the panel are three miners also on their way to work<br /><br /><br />MRS JONES: “MAKE SURE HE KEEPS HIS HEAD DOWN MICHAEL.”<br /><br /><br /><br />[Page 1 continued]<br />Panel 4: <br />In this panel we see Houses 3 and 2 as the boys walk past House 2. From House 3, behind the boys, two men (again miners) are getting out the doorway to go to work. <br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 5: <br />House 1 is the last before the street corner and is visible on the very left of the panel along with a sign for the street name. The boys are beyond House 1 and are crossing the road with several other miners, down toward the bottom right of the panel. <br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 6: <br />Large flow of workers at the entrance of the mine complex (not the mine itself) trudging to work. I don’t have a fixed image for this panel but I want it to show how reliant the area had become on the coal mine, as many of the Welsh mining areas were, and how many people it employed. It’s my way of saying ‘See, look how many people did this shit.’<br /> <br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 7: <br />The two boys are lowered down a hole into the shaft, looks like this: http://www.hoodfamily.info/coal/graphics/ginpit.jpg<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>Page 2</strong><br /><br />Six panel grid, three rows of two. (see thumbnail page 2)<br /><br />Panel 1: <br />The two boys separate at the bottom of the hole, going in opposite directions. This area is a hubbub of activity; men with tools are walking toward tunnels – the occasional miner is carrying a lamp; there are rails on which boys are pushing carts full of coal. This is also shift change so many grimy, soot-covered men hurrying to leave. Michael is looking stern, Jonathan is smiling and rolling his eyes, this is something they go through every day.<br /><br />MICHAEL: “DON’T FORGET TO …”<br /><br />JONATHAN: “KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN.” <br /><br />Panel 2: <br />Jonathan crouch-ducks past several men on their knees (ref: http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/tmorris/elements_of_ecology/images/coal_miners.jpg) and two boys pushing a cart full of coal, down into a darkened side tunnel.<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 3: <br />Jonathan is attracted toward a natural narrow passage in the rock with a dim light whose source is off panel. He has to crouch quite low to get through the entrance. <br /><br />[no dialogue] <br /><br />Panel 4: <br />Zoom in. Jonathan is almost flat on his stomach, crawling toward the hole, now visible, where the light is coming from. The light is now brighter but the panel is otherwise almost completely dark.<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 5: <br />Zoom in really close. A hand reaches out through the hole of light, extended toward Jonathan who is recoiling slightly in fear.<br /><br />[no dialogue]<br /><br />Panel 6: <br />Jonathan is right by the hole now and tentatively takes the offered hand.<br /><br />[no dialogue]</em><br /><br />As I’m sure you’ll notice, because I did, the panel descriptions aren’t as developed as they could be and for a few panels I didn’t know exactly how to describe the shot, knowing what you want from a panel and actually giving solid, understandable descriptions is one of the first lessons I’m coming to grips with. To be fair to Chris he took on the challenge with some great choices and made the story flow smoothly where my poor writing could have caused a problem. As I said in an earlier post, you can’t beat actually writing – and getting a chance to see it drawn up – to learn about your weaknesses and how you can improve. In that regard Tim and Chris were also very good, giving me their insights and feedback so my next effort will be better.Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-12756828474389125782008-12-14T23:45:00.003+00:002008-12-15T00:22:45.734+00:00ShowcaseFollowing up on the Work! Anthology, here are art excerpts from some of the other stories in various stages of production. I think it very clearly showcases the variety and talent the anthology brings to the table. Enjoy.<br /><br /><a href="http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/2177/jasonfranksandnichunterho9.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 419px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 640px" alt="" src="http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/2177/jasonfranksandnichunterho9.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/544/jf2fs9.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 419px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 640px" alt="" src="http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/544/jf2fs9.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/8788/timschartistsanthemao4.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 382px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 600px" alt="" src="http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/8788/timschartistsanthemao4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6968/wreckofold97samcostellofy5.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 420px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 640px" alt="" src="http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6968/wreckofold97samcostellofy5.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2577/whichsideareyouoneltonplh7.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 333px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 500px" alt="" src="http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2577/whichsideareyouoneltonplh7.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/2530/waltzingmatildaiangouldal4.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 450px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 340px" alt="" src="http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/2530/waltzingmatildaiangouldal4.jpg" border="0" /></a>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-60846581403328612242008-12-11T23:41:00.002+00:002008-12-11T23:52:01.111+00:00ProcessThis is one of the most interesting aspects of comics for me, how do x number of creators get to the same point – finished comic – from so many different approaches. From a writer’s viewpoint I’ve been refining my process almost constantly as I learn new things and try to feel out what works for me.<br /><br />At present my process currently looks like this:<br /><ol><li>Idea – could be anything from a character name to an almost complete story. </li><li>Explore idea – keep writing down anything that comes from the initial idea. </li><li>Write the story in full – once critical mass is reached on the idea, write down the story in shortened prose, hitting all the major beats where possible. </li><li>Break down the story into the major beats, giving you a rough idea of what form the comic will take – one-shot, mini/maxi-series, OGN etc </li><li>Issue paragraphs, one paragraph explaining what happens for each issue. </li><li>Single issue beats – can be as many as six or seven or as few as two or three. This also gives me a rough page guide. </li><li>Pages 1-22 (or whatever you decided after the above) – what information you want to get on each page. </li><li>Write it! </li></ol><p>The first two parts are self-explanatory. For part three – what is critical mass? For me the simple answer is whatever you decide it to be, if you can see a story or a brief part of one at any given point, write it down. As this develops you will see how the story shapes up in general and that’s when I would commit to writing as much of it down as possible. What this does is give you a framework from which to delve into what exactly it is you have and whether it is enough to warrant going further. However this will depend on your intent, comics doesn’t put a roof over my head or food on the table, so writing comics to make money is different to writing comics for experience and to build a CV.<br /><br />Shortened prose isn’t the best of descriptions but it is how I think of essentially getting the skeleton or synopsis of the story down in words. Basically, a few paragraphs that explains the whole story. For instance, here’s a great example from <a href="http://librarygorilla.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Justin Jordan</a> who gave me a lot of good advice and from whom I’ve adapted several parts of this way of working.<br /><br /><em>Citizen<br />After a reporter’s wife kills herself and their young son in a bizarre act of social defiance, he is driven to explain what happened to her. He finds strange things on her hard drive that he can’t explain, and his investigation leads him to a series of similar acts all over the country, all connected by one word: Citizen.</em></p><p><em>Citizen is a living ideology, a group reaction to the corruption inherent in modern American society. It takes over the minds of people who read it, turning them into citizen and using them to strike against the government. In the end, the reporter is unable to convince anyone of the existence of Citizen, and frustrated by society, he kills himself in a public act of defiance. He has become a Citizen.</em><br />© Justin Jordan 2008<br /><br />From this you should be able to define the initial important events (any story will be subject to change, sometimes on a large scale) and, depending on what events you wish to highlight, give you a basic walkthrough from beginning to end. These events or beats should also give you some thoughts as to what format best fits the story – is it an open-ended story that warrants an on-going series? If it has a clearly defined ending is it a mini or maxi series? How many issues will that take? Should it be served up all at once as an Original Graphic Novel? What about small instalments as a web comic? There’s a lot to consider about what form allows you to best tell your story.<br /><br />Once you’ve decided on a format and are happy with the general story beats, you can break it down into successively smaller parts that should make the story a more manageable, enjoyable process whilst giving you plenty of freedom to explore. Deciding on a starting point will be a major component of this section. I read <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18890" target="_blank">this</a> incredibly informative article by Steven Grant recently, which may help you understand the benefits of really thinking about where you want the story to begin.<br /><br />Dependent on what format I’ve opted for then, I can break the story down into whatever size pieces I feel comfortable with. You can do it by issue, giving you what part of the story each issue is going to deal with. Breaking it down further to see how each issue is tailored to serve that part of the story, right down to the 1-22 on a piece of paper to decide what each page, or even panel, should look like and how it builds the story.<br /><br />I know this can be seen as a very drawn out and mechanical process, plus it hasn’t lead to me writing anything of note yet, but I find it gives me a lot of smaller goals to achieve and a very clear idea of every part of the story. This helps me to keep chipping away at a story each time I sit down to write. Ultimately though, there is no substitute for writing and gaining practical experience of what works for you. Hopefully this will have helped some but I’d love to hear from anyone with a different method</p>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-29957557770177908032008-12-10T22:43:00.005+00:002008-12-10T23:04:07.778+00:00PresentsChristmas is a time of giving and being the kind-hearted loon I am, here are two comics that should give your holidays that extra added warmth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.stumblebumstudios.com/images/features/wintermen001.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 387px" alt="" src="http://www.stumblebumstudios.com/images/features/wintermen001.jpg" border="0" /></a>First up is the long awaited conclusion to John Paul Leon and Brett Lewis’ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_Men" target="_blank">The Winter Men</a>. A fantastic mini-series throwing the reader head long into modern Russia and all its complexities through the journey of three former Soviet super-soldiers who have become ‘other things’. Though there is the smallest nod to superheroes in <em>The Winter Men</em> it is merely in passing, an affectation to couch the story initially on familiar ground for the reader, before shredding it amongst the intrigue and double-dealing the story sets up. The dialogue is nothing short of superb, the characters three dimensional in a way very few comics manage to achieve, particularly in such a short space of time and Lewis’s ideas shine through the script. Equally Leon’s artwork is gritty and harsh, a fitting mirror for the world being portrayed and the quality ensures you’ll quickly become engrossed. Unfortunately the series ground to a halt at #5 two years ago, so getting your hands on copies may be difficult. Hopefully with this concluding <a href="http://heavyink.com/comic/6910-Wintermen-Winter-Special-1" target="_blank">special</a> either a trade or a re-printing will happen. Try to find them, <em>The Winter Men</em> is several levels above good, verging on classic under the radar.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://i.newsarama.com/images/incognitocvr-ff.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 433px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 178px" alt="" src="http://i.newsarama.com/images/incognitocvr-ff.jpg" border="0" /></a>My second secret santa tip to you is <em><a href="http://www.marvel.com/catalog/INCOGNITO.1" target="_blank">Incognito</a></em>. The unstoppable duo of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips temporarily put <em>Criminal</em> on hold to bring us an unusual slant on a superhero story – an ex-super villain hiding out in Witness Protection, living an average, mundane life. Or in Brubaker’s own words from a September <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090816-Incognito.html" target="_blank">Newsarama</a> interview:<br /><br /><em>Incognito is a dark exploration into the nature of good, if that makes any sense. It's about a completely amoral guy with super-powers forced to pretend he's a normal law-abiding citizen, because he's in Witness Protection, and how that shapes what he becomes. It's also a brutal noir twist on the super-hero/super-villain genre that delves more into their roots in the pulps, and it's going to be pretty over-the-top and action-packed.</em><br /><br />Not only does this seem like a really interesting idea with an incredible creative team, but just the simple mention of <em>Sleeper</em> should be enough to raise expectations. <em>Sleeper</em>, in some respects like <em>The Winter Men</em>, was a fingertip burning espionage tale that just happened to involve superheroes and villains. If <em>Incognito</em> is anything close to as good, it may blow your stockings off :)Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1173290283764546720.post-74117278737932654972008-12-09T22:28:00.011+00:002008-12-09T23:15:00.843+00:00Actual ComicsSo I guess one of the questions you’re asking yourself upon reading this blog is: does this guy actually write anything? I do and although as the blog title suggests I am some distance from being somebody, or anybody for that matter, I recently had a short story accepted for an anthology called <a href="http://the12s.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Work!</a> An interesting mix of the workers movement and its music, Work! couldn’t be more relevant than in this current climate of financial turmoil, where the fat cats get paid off while the workers join the ever lengthening dole queues.<br /><br /><div>Work! is the brainchild of <a href="http://the12s.com/indext.html" target="_blank">Tim Twelves </a>and <a href="http://ericpalicki.com/" target="_blank">Eric Palicki</a>, bringing together a number of short stories based on the songs and anthems of the workers movement. From John Barleycorn to Sloop John B, the songs are used as the base for creators to interpret and re-imagine into stories that are relevant and interesting. Being Welsh my contribution focuses on the coal mines. Coal mining was a huge part of Wales at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century, employing anywhere up to a fifth of our total population. My great-grandfather was a miner, my grandfather was a miner and so many friends and family from the area at the time were miners. As such it has had a huge effect on the national consciousness and it’s landscape. But it was dangerous, very dangerous at the start of the coal boom. So I wanted to write something a little bit sobering and relevant to the tough conditions everyone, young or old, worked under. In a list of suggestions Tim posted, I came across this: <a href="http://www.bobdylanroots.com/miner1.html" target="_blank">http://www.bobdylanroots.com/miner1.html</a> which gave form to an idea I’d been chewing over since I read about the anthology.<br /></div><br /><div>Obviously I’m not going to give the story away, I’d rather you read it and all the other stories in the anthology the way we hope you will, book in hand. But I can give you a decent idea of what’s to come from myself because a few weeks back Tim e-mailed me the first images of the pencils for the story, by a talented artist named <a href="http://www.chrisfenoglio.com/" target="_blank">Chris Fenoglio</a>. So here are the first two pages of pencils with more about the Work! Anthology to come later in the week.</div><br /><div>Page 1</div><br /><div></div><a href="http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4083/miner1pv2yk7.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 600px" alt="" src="http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4083/miner1pv2yk7.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>Page 2</div><br /><div></div><a href="http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/2008/miner2pay8.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 600px" alt="" src="http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/2008/miner2pay8.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>Owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02963402232123258481noreply@blogger.com0