This is an idea for a long-form (30-50 issues) sci-fi/fantasy action comic I would love to write. I already have the first script finished for this one, and I need an artist. If you dig the idea of the story and would like to illustrate it, or even discuss it as a project, please let me know here (or leave your e-mail/web address in the comments). I have characters and scripts that I would like to share with any serious party. Extra points if you live in the New York area.
If you don't like it, well, this space is meant to be a forum for my developing ideas, so please keep reading. But for now, I intend to call this one "Selfless". Enjoy:
"Selfless" Pitch
Its the end of the world, do you know where your soul is? Tom Carter is on a quest to find out why his is missing. With the help of a magical rap superstar, a sheriff with creeping insanity, and a century old science experiment, he just might figure it out. That is if the monstrous Children of Soggoth, recently awakened, and their hidden puppet masters, don't take over the world first. Tom and his group of outsiders will travel across a deteriorating America in search of a cure to the madness that has taken hold of the populace. Some will try to save the world, others will try to save themselves.
The first three-issue-story arc deals with the Children of Soggoth returning to the Earth in the form of a meteor storm striking the entire world. Upon their landing the minds of people across the globe begin reverting to a bestial state in a violent rejection of societal conditioning. Not that Tom Carter notices. Tom is found by hip-hop mogul B-Rare, and together they must escape Denver. Unfortunately, they are blocked at every turn by violently crazy citizens, sorcerers looking for revenge, and the old beasts of the world which have come looking for blood. All the while, Sheriff Metcalf does what he can to keep the peace. So long as he can keep his sanity that is.
The second arc concerns our players converging on the secret chief's long hidden place of power. Heroes will meet a new ally. The hand behind the world's destruction will reveal himself. A romance will present itself. The secret history of the world will be revealed. But someone must be sacrificed to another dimension. Really? Who?
I have the rest of the story outlined, and we can talk about that if you are interested in drawing it!
As with all projects presented on this site, I cannot offer you money for this series. I would hope that if we are good enough, we could pitch it to Image or some such, after a time. That is the best I can offer. I am an unknown author, but I want to be known by my talents less than my networking skills, thus I want to make a comic before I pitch one. If you are interested in showing the biz what you can do based on your work, then lets do it. If this doesn't grab you, again, stay tuned. I have other ideas about series that might fit your interests. Stay posted.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
I thought on comics: The Boys
The Boys By Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson
The Boys aren't alright. It has been 7 issues, and in that expansive comic time we have watched the reader's eye of Little Hughie get begrudgingly initiated into a cabal of anti-superhero black-ops types, all the while hemming and hawing at the implication of violence and black leather.
And that's it.
Sure there has been the occasional behind-the-scenes dalliance into the sordid lives of superheroes, which comes off as so much gory Ennis-shorthand for "deserves everything that's coming," but I can't think of a single moment from previous issues that stands out. Which is saying something when I look back through the issues and am reminded of an especially ominous rape scene. (Not to sound insensitive, but when will rape stop being the fall back for irredeemable character trait. At this point it reads as almost nothing. Especially in a Garth Ennis book.)
Well this week, something finally happens, and guess what: its violence and sexual deviance. Yawn. The writing seems loose and the action boring. People's faces get smashed, balls are hit, and someone GOES OVER THE LINE! Snore. And the usually busy-but-precise artwork of Darick Robertson seems smudged and rushed. Maybe this long set-up, which I will accept as spaced for trade, will pay off in the coming issues, but somehow I doubt it. The whole thing strikes me as a rushed attempt at recreating the offensive magic of Preacher, while Ennis focuses on his superior Punisher series or War Stories (if those are still being written).
However, I also get the feeling that, maybe, I'm just getting too old for this sort of thing.
It could be said that if I were fifteen and reading this I would eat up the anti-establishment, fuck-em-if-they-can't-take-a-joke vibe of the book in the same way that I devoured and hid the Preacher books so many years ago. In a time when bringing in new, and especially young readers is so important, I can see what's happening. This book reads like a an MTV show: loud, full of big talk, and in need of editing. JK. But really, if you were to tell a teenager to read a comic book, do you think that Runaways (an amazing, written-for-teens book, but only for young'ns who are already into comics) would catch their attention more than this?
The problem is that I can re-read the Preacher series and see a pastiche of the American Western tale told in an overblown, yet economic fashion (much in the same way that Sin City works as a pastiche of Noir tales). Yet this book just reeks of violence for violence sake. The idea that superheroes have too much power has been covered in so many books, I won't even begin, the human vs. the superhuman has also been retread so many times it gets hard to count (if you want real evidence, ask for it in the comments). And to slowly draw it out just makes it insulting. Adding insane amounts of violence doesn't do anything new. Especially when it takes seven issues to reach that violence. Mainstream comics are already in the habit of referencing the nonsensical, and dark nature of the genre, which makes angsty commentary on it obsolete.
I know Garth Ennis (Preacher, Hellblazer) and Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, Fury) can do better. But people younger than me might not.
Also purchased this week:
100 Bullets, Book 10: Decayed
Nextwave, Issue #11
Fables, Book 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
The Boys aren't alright. It has been 7 issues, and in that expansive comic time we have watched the reader's eye of Little Hughie get begrudgingly initiated into a cabal of anti-superhero black-ops types, all the while hemming and hawing at the implication of violence and black leather.
And that's it.
Sure there has been the occasional behind-the-scenes dalliance into the sordid lives of superheroes, which comes off as so much gory Ennis-shorthand for "deserves everything that's coming," but I can't think of a single moment from previous issues that stands out. Which is saying something when I look back through the issues and am reminded of an especially ominous rape scene. (Not to sound insensitive, but when will rape stop being the fall back for irredeemable character trait. At this point it reads as almost nothing. Especially in a Garth Ennis book.)
Well this week, something finally happens, and guess what: its violence and sexual deviance. Yawn. The writing seems loose and the action boring. People's faces get smashed, balls are hit, and someone GOES OVER THE LINE! Snore. And the usually busy-but-precise artwork of Darick Robertson seems smudged and rushed. Maybe this long set-up, which I will accept as spaced for trade, will pay off in the coming issues, but somehow I doubt it. The whole thing strikes me as a rushed attempt at recreating the offensive magic of Preacher, while Ennis focuses on his superior Punisher series or War Stories (if those are still being written).
However, I also get the feeling that, maybe, I'm just getting too old for this sort of thing.
It could be said that if I were fifteen and reading this I would eat up the anti-establishment, fuck-em-if-they-can't-take-a-joke vibe of the book in the same way that I devoured and hid the Preacher books so many years ago. In a time when bringing in new, and especially young readers is so important, I can see what's happening. This book reads like a an MTV show: loud, full of big talk, and in need of editing. JK. But really, if you were to tell a teenager to read a comic book, do you think that Runaways (an amazing, written-for-teens book, but only for young'ns who are already into comics) would catch their attention more than this?
The problem is that I can re-read the Preacher series and see a pastiche of the American Western tale told in an overblown, yet economic fashion (much in the same way that Sin City works as a pastiche of Noir tales). Yet this book just reeks of violence for violence sake. The idea that superheroes have too much power has been covered in so many books, I won't even begin, the human vs. the superhuman has also been retread so many times it gets hard to count (if you want real evidence, ask for it in the comments). And to slowly draw it out just makes it insulting. Adding insane amounts of violence doesn't do anything new. Especially when it takes seven issues to reach that violence. Mainstream comics are already in the habit of referencing the nonsensical, and dark nature of the genre, which makes angsty commentary on it obsolete.
I know Garth Ennis (Preacher, Hellblazer) and Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, Fury) can do better. But people younger than me might not.
Also purchased this week:
100 Bullets, Book 10: Decayed
Nextwave, Issue #11
Fables, Book 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers
welcome back again!
Thanks to a Beta-related anomaly, my blog has been forced into fire and spat out of the ashes anew once again! In this iteration, I have decided to focus on using the space as a venue for my writing and less for my rambling. Though I'm sure there will be more than enough of that as well. Welcome and enjoy!
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