I am going to be in Ocean City for the next week (I don’t have the adresss rihght now), and while I will be there on business, I will also have time to relax. However, there are no movie I currently want to see, I have no laptop, and I will be packing light, rather than take a ton of paperbacks with me. So, what shall I do for entertainment?
Well, obviously, see the sights. But what else shall I do with my free time? I know! The local free weekly paper is having a create a comic contest. Sure, so I can’t draw worth a damn. So what? I will write out the scripts for the first seven or so installments, and see if any of my RL friends would like to help illustrate it. Sure, so it will become the property of City Paper. I am not worryying. Perhaps I will simply not enter my creation after all. I always wanted to write, though my attempts seem to fall flat . Ah well, practice, practice, practice.
Oh, and so far, my actual concept is to have a fantasy (Magic and Dragons) story set in contemporary suburban America. The protagonists would be some young people who discover that magic works, albeit with it being far weaker then how it is thought to be. You see, if they cast a spell of rapid flight, they end up awkwardly bobbing up and down in the same spot in mid-air. Theoretically, it would be advertised to a syndicate as being like Harry Potter, only daily. They end up having adventures anyway. Initially, hope springs eternal and I plan to put it in a daily comic strip format, like those stupid Soap Opera comics, or like the Amazing Spiderman comic strip. I may have to change my plans and I might not.
So far, I have an idea of what I want the first comic to be like, vaguely.
First panel: Old fashioned, overly dramatic looking writing. (Jenny/Holly/Pamela) Golightly is about to start on the oddest point in her young life." Insert various dramatic dialog telling about how fantastic this is going to be, and talk about her obsession with magic. Emphasize that she has leaned to conceal her interest from the outside world. Have it continue for the next two panels or so. Try to build up the tension.
Gag ending:
Third panel: Show an average young girl of (High School? Middle School?) age dressed in perfectly normal clothing, in a perfectly normal place, trying to cast a spell from book of magic. Have here failing miserably in the last panel, despite what we were lead to believe in the first few panels.
Storyline ending:
OR, have her enter in a diary entry, detailing how her latest attempt to perform a magic spell has failed. Show that this is only the latest diary of many, since see was young.
Note to self: If I decide to not use these ideas, at least try to build up the drama in the first strip, and then have the last panel play off of that.
Minimise all text to the point of having almost none, including dialogue and exposition.
Have lots of opportunity for interesting panel art, rather than just talking heads in a single location. That can work in some instances, but it really should be minimised.
Make sure it’s drawn well. And I mean well, not passably, or scribbly, or too builiy detailed. I mean like a good comic strip is drawn. Do not go by online comic strips, as they are either too digital and repetitive or drawn by people with a disappointingly low level of talent.
Learn composition. You may not be drawing it yourself, but you will need to understand the limits of what can be drawn in a single panel.
However, I am now forced to post my idea for the second panel, least you think I am going to make it all dialogue based.
First panel: She grabs her back pack and stuffs a three-ring binder into it, or maybe it is already sticking out of the bag. There is a drawling on the front of it depicting a simple figure wearing robes levitating a comically large boulder. Possible it is also titled something like: “Compilation of untested levitation spells”
Second panel: A rock quarry. She is standing upright, with good posture, one hand outstretched, and the other hand holding the book. She is attempting to float a large rock. No go.
Third panel: Judging from the position of the sun, quite a lot of time has gone by. She is now sitting cross-legged on the ground, and her posture is horrible. She is bent over the book.
Fourth panel: She turns to leave. Unbeknownst to her, a small pebble is floating slightly behind and to the right of her head.
How will she react when, and if she sees it, in the next comic? I haven’t decided yet.
One thing I note is that several of these depend on a well drawn background and weird angles: For instance, showing someone sitting on the ground AND showing the sun high in the sky. In order to do that you would either have to draw her from a really low angle with a wide lense, or split it into two panels; one of the sky, one of her sitting.
Most strip comics don’t have backgrounds at all just because there isn’t enough room, so it’s probably best to assume that there will only be background or only characters. Comics set in an office generally use props (like holding a cup of coffee) to get across the location.
That’s the one. But why would that be weird? After all, like I said in the Op, I am not looking for a gag a day strip, but rather a storyline based one. Those often put a lot of detail into a small space. Besides, I might change my mind and not enter the comic strip, but instead try to rewrite it later as a short story or something. Imagining it as a comic strip is just one way to constrain myself to a format.
Giant_Spongess: Tell me, how would you personally have her react next? SO as not to influence your honest answer, I have put what I was thinking about doing next in a spoiler box. Me, I would just have it follow her back, and have it hover in mid air. Eventually she will turn her head and see it. I would have her make sure it is not a practical joke that her friends played on her, then the narrator dramatically anticipates how see will handle the situation. Instead she goes a little hysterical. In the next comic, She tries to figure what spell caused it. They will not all end with a gag.
Given that you’re doing it for a contest with a newspaper, you can’t have larger cells, so regardless that you are going for story-based, you’re still going to have the same size limitations as newspaper strips. And, dependent on how good your friends are with perspective, and dependent on how much time they will be willing to dump into your project–it’s probably best to keep things fairly 2D and outlines-only if you don’t want to have to have that situation where you’ve given your friend a few weeks, call him up, and nada.
Shadows is probably a bit too easy to miss. A description balloon works just fine, I would think, but that’s not what Scott wrote to do in his panel description–so whether his friend would hit on it of his own would be up to Og.
Make them all giant rats with tiny wings and wearing bowlers. Maybe a tattoo or two. And riding motorised unicycles. Add a hand on the end of their tails.
Yes, but what I posted wasn’t the final word on the subject. Instead it was the vision of what I was thinking it would be like, off the top of my head. The real final word on the subject will be posted later this week, after much writing, rewriting, as review of web comics, along with consultation with my friend, not here and now.
Well guys, thank you for all the sincere advice. Personally, I would like to go out on a limb and ask for a critique of the proposed plot, as well.
Oh, and NoClueBoy, am I being whooshed, or was that stuff about giant rats just meant to be a wtf moment? I don’t understand.
With such a positive reply, what else can I do but post another installment? is one is even more tentative than the last few. This is due to the fact that some great writer once said to put down whatever crap comes out of your head, for a few hours, then spend an even longer time revising it, till the dialog and charectors seem right. I have not gone anywhere near such a brainstorming session yet, or hacve tried to do that level of revision yet. So far, this is just brainstorming.
Part the third:
First panel?:
The pebble is hovering in the air in front of her as she scrambles through her papers with one hand, and inspects it for wires with the other. This distracted way of searching leads to chaos, of course. Papers go flying everywhere.
3rd panel?:
Some time later, see found the specific spell, and has recreated the experiment, and has concluded she is not hallucinating. She has a really confident look on her face. Possible dialog: “I am not crazy. This is really happening. Keripes. I don’t get why it turns out it isn’t acting right. Well, I cannot let anyone know about this.”
Third panel?
Gag ending:
Immediately after swearing how no one must know, ever, she gets caught practicing magic (Or maybe she isn’t trying to, but the same rock is still hovering behind her, unbeknownst to her.) on the way back home by either her male friend (cousin) best friend, her annoying female cousin, or maybe both.
OR,
Dramatic Storyline ending:
She sees/ fails to see the silhouette of a miner coming closer. Will she be caught? Stay tuned.
P.S. I have some hesitation about the lack of an more in-depth critique of the plot, and would welcome any input from more experienced writers.
I think this last one should be stretched out more to cover a few episodes, rather than try to jam it all into one. There’s still a mine of material you could play with as she comes to realise she has power.
Like accidentally using her power causing some chaos, and hilarity ensues. Or the hovering stone causing some kind of obstacle for someone else.
Oh, this might be a good opportunity to introduce another character, too.
I suppose. However, while I may change it, the idea I have so far is that while she has access to powers beyond the mortal ken, she can barely do anything with it. She has not levitated a gigantic bolder, animated ancient dinosaur skeletons, or turn the construction machines around the mine sentinent. Rather, she has simply found the spell that allows her to levitate pebbles. Once she gets home, she can cross reference the school of magic that includes the actually functional (barely) spell. Besides, she is late for dinner. Also, I was thing about introducing her cousins. Didn’t I just say this a second ago? However, perhaps it is not near dinner time, but instead mid-afternoon, still, so she still has plenty of time to experiment. I envision the pebble floating in mid air and following her, but you seem to envision it standing there. Perhaps I can integrate your suggestion. Hmmmmm…
An unmovable pebble, hanging in mid air would cause definite problems to any mining equipment that should knock into it. Will she have to convince the crane operator that he really needs sleep, and that it isn’t a small floating rock that he just rammed the craine into?
I really don’t know. Personally, I was about to send her home, after a bit of drama of her trying to act inconspicuous to a Union member. Despite her promise not to tell anyone, she finds herself about to describe it at the dinner table, but is scolded into submission by her father for coming home late. However, all this is mutable. I would enjoy hearting you give more input. It sounds like you have some ideas. How about you envision what direction you would send the plot in? I don’t just want this to be my vision, if it goes in a direction contrary to that of the viewer.
P.S. Any suggestion you, or anyone else may have, please suggest them quickly. I am going to be on line much of tonight, but I will be traveling to OC tomorrow, late in the morning. As I said earlier, I don’t know how often I will have access to a computer after that. Any suggestions, or commentary you may have after that will still be appreciated, but I may not be able to read them for several days.
D’oh. In my rush to eplain my reasoning and vision of the plot, and yet show I am open to change I forgot to thank **GuanoLad ** for actuually commenting on the plot itself. Thank you.
Oh, and while I am posting about this, I think I will mention some of my favorite online comic strips involving magic amd weirdness in the real world.
I haven’t decided yet.
