Resurrecting the thread again. This thread has returned to life more than Jean Grey...
I recently had a bit of inspiration during a boring conference call and slammed out some ideas for a Marvel pitch. Barring a skyrocketing ascendancy into the upper echelons of the comic industry, this will never see the light of day, but it sounds cool to me. Let me know what you guys think.
Ultimate Comics Hawk-Owl and the New Warriors
One of the most overlooked (and under-appreciated) stories from early in the Ultimate line's existence is the story of Hawk-Owl and Woody from the Ultimate Adventures title. Hawk-Owl and Woody are essentially pastiches of Batman and Robin who operate as vigilantes in Chicago, and in the comic they defeated a psychotic analogue of the Joker. Unfortunately that was the last story ever told about them, and the Ultimate universe progressed as if they did not exist. The aim of this book, then, is to tell stories that will be relevant to and have an impact on the Ultimate universe at large. It’s my hope that the book will bring these characters back into the mainstream and that they will be used by other writers in the Ultimate line as well.
The format for this book will be two 11 page stories. The first half of the book will be a Hawk-Owl story and the second half will be a New Warriors story. The two halves will occasionally cross over and due to their being based in Chicago and that there is a common character between them, the various story arcs will always have common threads running between them.
Time period: This book takes place in the modern, post Ultimatum era of the Ultimate universe (hereafter referred to as 1610).
Setting: Chicago. Like NYC and other major cities, Chicago is undergoing major rebuilding after the events of Ultimatum.
HAWK-OWL
The Premise: In the wake of Ultimatum, the nation rebuilds, presenting a perfect opportunity for criminals and psychopaths, loosed by the tragedy, to burrow into society and do their dirty work. Jack Danner had only been treating his vigilantism as the caped Hawk-Owl as an X-treme hobby, but when a close friend falls victim to one of the new super-powered (questionably sane) criminals plaguing the city, Jack must turn his hobby into a serious mission to rid Chicago of the evil that threatens to destroy it. But with a suddenly secretive and brooding sidekick, an annoyingly effective female also-ran, and a resentful police captain as his allies, can he marshal the forces necessary to save Chicago? Who is robbing priceless items from the most secure buildings in the Chicago-land area? Why are there ninjas running around in the shadows of Chicago? And what does Nick Fury have planned for Hawk-Owl’s future?
CAST
Hawk-Owl
Night Thrasher (formerly Woody)
Daniel Toliver
Lee
Aunt Ann
Captain Vincent Gonzalez
Hawk-Owlette
Villains/Antagonists
Black Cat
The Hand, led by Plan Chu (The Yellow Claw)
Elektra
The Tinkerer
Punisher
AIM
Nick Fury
The Ultimates
NEW WARRIORS
The Premise: In the wake of the Ultimatum disaster, Hank Kipple decides it’s time for a change. The first change is to ditch the costume and persona of the more light-hearted Woody and assume the identity of Night Thrasher, a more serious hero for more serious times. In his personal life, he applies to and is accepted into Emma Frost’s School of Tomorrow, where he can be around other gifted students like him. There, he is disgusted to see other teens with amazing powers but who do nothing with them to help the world. His opinion changes when he, a few of his fellow students, and several other powered bystanders team up to thwart the Circus of Crime. Hank decides that maybe Chicago needs a team of heroes and goes about recruiting his impromptu allies into an official team.
CAST
Night Thrasher
Nova
Silhouette
Namorita
Firestar
Speedball
Rictor
(School of Tomorrow)
Emma Frost
Geldoff
Havok
Polaris
Villains/Antagonists
Circus of Crime
Roxxon
- Beetle
- Deadpool
Sinister
Supernova (Garthan Saal)
AIM
The Hand
Nick Fury
TL;DR - Post-Ultimatum, Hawk-Owl, the Ultimate version of Batman, must confront the influx of criminals, super powered psychos, and shadowy groups that threaten Chicago. Meanwhile, his sidekick Night Thrasher (formerly known as Woody) forms the New Warriors, a group of gifted teens that combat super powered threats to Chicago.
EDIT: I forgot to add that the origins for the New Warriors characters are going to be somewhat different than the 616 versions. I'll add them as I think them up.
Nova
Ultimate Nova’s origin – Sam Guthrie, back home in Tennessee, discovers the ancient wreckage of a spaceship in a fissure near a coal mine, inside of which is the skeleton of an alien. He picks up the alien’s wristband, which latches onto him and proclaims him a new member of the Xandarian Nova Corps. It then gives him a new outfit and an AI assistant to help him adjust (think Worldmind) to the new armor and powers. Essentially the Nova armor is similar to 616 Iron Man’s extremis armor, with an AI in it. However, Xandarians all could naturally fly, so it has no flight power, which is fortunate for Sam that he can fly already. The Nova armor was on a desperate search for someone the last few hundred years to find it, so it’s not attached to any one user and will work for anyone who gets the wristband. Sam keeps this secret from his fellow Academy students and moonlights as Nova, facing primarily extraterrestrial crime on the Earth.
Namorita
A distant descendant of Ultimate Namor, Namorita comes from a small colony of Atlanteans that make their home in the Great Lakes. Similar to 616 Namor's origin, she is a human/Atlantean hybrid, and though this makes her stronger than her fellow GL Atlanteans, she is not nearly as powerful as Ultimate Namor. Her mother sent her to the surface world to live with her father and learn about how humans live. She's since been recruited by the School of Tomorrow after having displayed her strength, flight, and swimming abilities.
I dig it Mask. I haven't really written any of my little pitch mock-ups lately, as I'm working sixty hour weeks now, and am usually too frazzled to bother. But, I've been jotting down a lot of notes and doing some sketches, and when I quit one of my jobs in the coming months, I'm hoping I'll finally be up for doing a proper comic. Or at least some shorts.
In the meantime, some quick snippets of ideas I've been mulling over.
-An Atom story that chronicles Ray Palmer's depression following Identity Crisis, and his attempts to withdraw from, and later rejoin, the world at large. Villains would include the Brown Recluse, an oncologist researching tumor-shrinking techniques in his microscopic lab, who suddenly has his funding taken away, the Hermit Crab, a deviant voyeur who lives inside the brains of the rich and famous, controlling their actions and living vicariously though them, even as he slowly drives them mad, and some fey folk who begin knocking off shrinking heroes like the Minuteman, Bluejay, Doll Man, and Tiny Tim, due to the perceived threat to their people that such tiny heroes represent.
-A Hank Pym story following the hero as he's forced to go into deep cover as a supervillain in order to prevent a major crisis-level event, and his rise to power within the echelons of villainy. The book would be one part a-day-in-the-life, and one-part crime thriller, as Hank realizes just how deep he's in.
-Animal Man, one of the ultimate Average Joes of the superhero community, is forced to take a job with the Department of Extranormal Operations, as their Chief Cryptozoologist. Teamed with Rex the Wonder Dog, Buddy travels the globe, cataloging, protecting, and investigating cryptids. His supporting cast would be comprised of fellow cryptozoologists such as Loco Lobo, the Lycanthropic Luchadore of Mexico, Spring-Heeled Jacqueline of the United Kingdoms, and Detective Chimp, as well as Buddy's family, the Bakers, and with villains such as the Leeds Devil, Mothman, and Sasquatch to oppose him.
-Martian Manhunter returns from the dead and, troubled by the thought that Martian culture very nearly died with him, establishes New Mars on a volcanic island, which he purchased some decades ago, welcoming all who would learn the ways of the Martians. Martian fever quickly sweeps the globe with the release of J'onn's book, A History of Mars, and he finds himself set upon by irate nations, mad cultists decrying him as the end of humanity, and a mysterious enemy with links to the telepathic pyroplague which destroyed his people. Supporting him in his efforts to build a Martian utopia are Miss Martian, Gypsy, and Son of Vulcan, white martian hunter extraordinaire.
A major point of the pitch is that J'onn comes back from the dead and, having seen his dead wife and kid, and realized that they'll one day be reunited, has finally exorcised a lot of the sadness that's always haunted him. As a consequence, he constantly has kind of a Dalai Lama-esque air of contentment and peace that actually psychically emanates from him, affecting those in his presence with a pacifying effect.
The J'onn in my story would basically be a dude who's finally stopped holding back, opening himself up to the world, and really wearing his heart on his sleeve. As a consequence, he'd be a bit more visually dynamic, physically shifting his body to match his mood; when he's angry he bulks up to ridiculous Doug Mahnke-ian proportions, and his skin darkens until it's a greenish black, when he's sad he withers a bit and becomes a chalky yellow-green, and when he's out and about doing the superhero thing he looks much as he always has, though a bit larger, taking on a physique reminiscent of Marvel's jovial Hercules, and among friends his muscular definition fades, and his body loses all its sharp curves and lines, becoming more rounded and generally welcoming.
I was recommended by DouglasDanger to come and post here. I've been a Writer's Block forumer for about three or four years now, occasionally posted in this forum too (mostly about the dreaded indie comics).
Anyway, I recently landed my first publication with Red 5 Comics. Here's a link:
Douglas wanted me to share some pitch tips, which I posted in the news thread, but I'll post here as well. Hope it helps.
Well, I actually did some work for hire for Red 5 in August of last year. They sent me a PDF with a list of very short ideas with a title and I took those nuggets and turned them into a full series synopsis with complete cast, an issue guide, etc.
So, I'd been in frequent contact with Red 5 from that point.
I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. NETWORKING.
That's my advice for a successful pitch. Go talk to editors, make friends with comic people, get your name out there. To start, it's probably best to have a completed pitch so that when you do meet editors, you have something to show them. Honestly, it's a lot harder for writers, because, not many people will want to read a script. If you can find an artist who is willing to collaborate, or I suppose if you believe enough in your script to pay an artist for the pitch, that's the first step.
I'm very lucky, I landed both of my artists on the hope we would get our names out on the shelves, which has paid off fortunately.
My pitch's uniformly were formatted this way:
1)Introduction - quick bio and a summary of the story including tone/audience/synopsis
2)Actual Pages - completed, no pages with just pencil or missing lettering. Entirely complete
3)First Issue Script - tack that baby on at the end.
I printed them off in a nice binder package when I went to the Calgary Comic Expo with the notion to give them to editors. It cost about $10 a book I think. I still think it was unnecessary, but I did get to speak with an editor who flipped through it with me. So, take that for what it's worth.
So, as I said above, networking played the largest part, getting your work in front of the editor. That means going to cons, and when you do, go with the mindset of a job application. Know your pitch before you go speak to the editor, because if you're like me, you'll freeze up and just shove it into their hands. Gotta sell that baby.
Online is another way you can submit, and there are a few small press publishers that are excellent at getting back to you fairly quickly. (Ape Entertainment, Shadowline, etc) Even if it's rejection, you hear back. The waiting game sucks.
Last, don't give up. Seriously. I've been trying for 5 years to get my work published, and it's been a hard, painful run. I firmly believe I succeeded because I just kept putting projects together and kept pitching. Right now I have 6 potential series sitting on my hard drive, but Beautiful Creatures was the first to finally see the light of day. The other 6? Lots of rejection letters or no response at all.
Keep putting your ideas down and getting teams together who share your enthusiasm and desire to become published.
Question on meeting with editors: how'd you set those up? Just met them at their tables, or at panels? I'm guessing they're used to being accosted by hungry creators. :P
Also, any advice on enticing artists onto projects?
It depends on the con. I've only gone to the Calgary Comic Expo so far, so in that time I've spoken with about 4 editors. Luckily, at a con of that size, their time is far less occupied than they would be at something like NYCC or SDCC. I actually was able to talk with Mark Waid for five or ten minutes, totally free of interruption. I'd recommend trying to find a smaller con where editors show up. Face time is invaluable.
I guess that falls back into my point about professionalism. You're 100% right about editors being swarmed by creators, so you have to come across confident about your project. I was unable to attend SDCC last year, but last year the artist I worked on a project called Snow Angel with was able to go and he said, uniformly, that the people in lines were nervous as hell and stumbled over their words when they talked to the editors. He said that these people were written off before the editor even looked at the material.
Finding artists can be tricky. There are a lot of differing opinions on how to work with an artist. My first pitch I paid an artist $1000, when I was really broke. That project never got completed and still sits on my hard drive, waiting to be rewritten. The artist did give the money back in the end, but one of the things I've concluded for myself, is that my stories and my scripts are well written and interesting. I'm contributing all those ideas and characters, while the artist supplies the visuals. It's a team effort, we both put in the time and we can both possibly benefit. So, I generally don't pay artists for a pitch.
That said, you have to keep in mind that a pitch isn't a guarentee, obviously. So, an artist is illustrating on the hope of publication, which doesn't put food on their table. They are entirely justified in asking a page rate. You could possible pay for the pitch, and work out a deal that once you are published, at that point you share royalties and ownership of the project. Not a bad way to go about it.
My biggest networking tool to meet artists has been Comicspace. I also visit Deviantart once in awhile and contact people through that.
I'm more of a concept artist and I've helped people out with occasional freebies but there's no way I'd do multiple pages of work without cash on the barrelhead unless I was really excited about the project.
Exactly, like I said, some artists may be willing to do it on the hope of getting published. Often I find that the artists the most willing to work that way are the one's who have a strong desire to use their art strictly in comics.
The artist I paid the $1000 was a concept artist as well, and he wanted to work in the video game industry. It all depends on an individual's goals.
I think that's why I've found success in comicspace, as a lot of artists there are very focused on getting into the comic industry.
It also helps to have a solid script and story concept.
Also, if any of you are interested, I'm also the editor of a self published magazine called Vehicle. It came about after a lot of mutual frustrations between myself and the lead artist seeing real amateur stuff on the shelves, yet being unable to get into the industry ourselves. We are taking submissions, so if you have any short comics, or want to try your hand at them, we might be of some help. Here's the website, where you can contact us, as well you can see the entire first issue for free.
We do have a handful of artists that could probably work on a script. We'd prefer a completed 5 pager, but we're willing to work with an artist looking for a writer or the other way around.
I couldn't think of a better place to post this. I've been trying to script out the Glengarry Glenross spoof scene referenced in Astonishing Tales #5. This is the latest draft.
Just for reference sake, Roberto (Sunspot) was playing Alec Baldwin's character as a SHIELD agent (I used Sitwell because, why not?). It's with the Ellis Thunderbolts, and the Nick Fury references are from the comic itself. So...
Agent Sitwell: You're talking about what.You're talking about... Bitching about that hit you blew, some sonofabitch who don't wanna stay dead, some broad you're trying to screw, so forth. Let's talk about something important.
They all here?
Norman Osborn: All but one.
Agent Sitwell: I'm going anyway.
Let's talk about something important.
Put. That coffee. Down.
[pause]
Coffee's for killers only.
You think I'm fucking with you? I am not fucking with you. I'm here from downtown. I'm here from Nick Fury. And I'm here on a mission of mercy.
Your name's Venom? You call yourself a killer, you son of a bitch?
Swordsman: I don't gotta sit here and listen to this shit.
Agent Sitwell: You certainly don't pal, 'cause the good news is - you're dead. The bad news is - you've got, all of you've got just one week to keep your lives - starting with tonight. Starting with tonight's hit.
Oh? Have I got your attention now?
Good. 'Cause we're adding a little something to this month's contest. As you all know first prize is an Oscorp Zeus and a ticket out of the U.S. Anyone wanna see second prize?
Second prize is a set of steak knives.
Third prize is you're murdered.
Get the picture? You laughing now?
You got leads. Nick Fury paid good money. Get their names to kill them. You can't kill the marks you're given. You can't kill shit. You ARE shit. Shit bricks, pal and kiss your ass goodbye 'cause you are going OUT.
Venom: The leads are weak.
Agent Sitwell: The leads are weak? Fucking leads are weak. You're weak. I've been in this business 15 years...
Swordsman: What's your name
Agent Sitwell: FUCK YOU. That's my name. You know why, mister? You're locked away in here like animals. I flew a five-hundred, eighty-million dollar SHIELD minicarrier. THAT'S my name. And your name is you're wanting. You can't play in the man's game, you can't kill them -- go home and tell Doc Sampson your troubles. Because only one thing counts in this life: Get them to lie cold in their blood puddle.
You hear me you fucking faggots?
A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing. ALWAYS BE CLOSING.
A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention - Do I have you attention? Interest - Are you interested? I know you are, because it's fuck or die. You kill or you die. Decision - Have you made your decision, for Christ? And Action.
A-I-D-A. Get out there - you got the tips coming in. You think they came in to get out of the rain? A guy don't fuck with us lest he wants to die. They're sitting out there waiting to give you their lives. Are you gonna take them? Are you man enough to take their lives?
What's the problem, pal?
Swordsman: You - Andreas von Strucker. You're such a hero, you're so badass, how come you're coming down here wasting your time with such a bunch of bums?
Agent Sitwell: You see this uniform? You see this uniform?
Swordsman: Yeah.
Agent Sitwell: This SHIELD uniform costs more than you life. I killed 970 superhumans last year. How many'd you kill? You see pal, that's who I am, and you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good symbiotic host? Fuck you! Go home and play with yourself. You wanna work here - KILL! You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you cocksucker? You can't take this, how can you take the abuse you get on a hit? You don't like it, let Bullseye kill you now.
I can go out there tonight with the materials you've got and kill myself 15 capes. Tonight! In two hours! Can you? Can YOU?
Go and do likewise.
A-I-D-A. Get mad you son of a bitches. Get mad. You want to know what it takes to kill superhumans? It takes ADAMANTIUM BALLS to kill superhumans. Go and do likewise gents. Marks are out there. You take them out, they're yours. You don't, I got no sympathy for you. You wanna go out on those hits tonight and close, CLOSE. It's yours. If not you're gonna be target practice. And you know what you'll be saying - a bunch of losers lined up in a firing squad. 'Oh yeah. I used to be a killer. It's a tough racket." [mimics a gunshot to the head]
These are the new leads. These are the HAMMER leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for killers.
I'd wish you good luck but you wouldn't know what to do with it if you got it.
And to answer you question, pal, why am I here? I came here because Nick Fury asked me to. He asked me for a favor. I said the real favor, follow my advice and kill your fucking ass because a loser is a loser.
In Astonishing Tales, one of the stories has Sunspot and Cannonball yanked into the Mojoverse, where they are contracted by Mojo to make a bunch of movies. The result is that they have been making a bunch of superhero-inspired spoofs of older movies, and in this specific case Roberto was acting/directing in a version of Glengarry, Glenross that Mojo and his assistant drop in on for a page as they are tracking the boys' progress. Anyway, the setup of the movie is as described above and begins at the beginning of Blake's speech and ends just after Roberto/Blake tells Venom/Shelley that "Coffee is for killers." So I just.... Finished the rest of the scene.
So I mentioned this in the Myths and Legends contest about where I was going until I decided it didn't fit the parameters of creating a hero or villain in superhero terms.
But anyway, here's the idea as I submitted it to a friend when he asked what I was doing that got me so excited to write again.
Coming off the idea of the Celts and Aztecs being the big-dick pantheons in my universe (like the Greco-Roman and Norse in Marvel), what if the deities and demigods were real? What if all of the traditions and beliefs subsumed directly or indirectly by the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents/semi-adherents were in fact enslaved by God and His servants (saints, angels, et al.) into a Sacred Invasion type situation where all of these gods and demigods, demons, fey, etc. are all conscripted soldiers in His sacred army like all of the conquered gods served the Skrull gods. And this army is a global force for good, evil, whatever when the situation gets out of line. On one hand, God's own forces could rout most individual pantheons. But now, it's filled with them and there is a social compact between them. Some buy into it wholeheartedly, like the Loa and some mesoamerican pantheons, and the pre-Islamic Arab and north African gods (Remember, this is YHWY, the Abrahamic creator worshipped by Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Others have split, mostly around the pagans faiths of Europe which actually serve as the foundation and day-to-day expert functions of Heaven's bureaucracy and military staff. Many of them are torn, especially now, due to a minor resurgence in practice and reverence. It's a lot of compromise and politically it's like NATO in that everyone supposedly answers to one commander, but in reality every unit has its own domestic rules of engagement and limitations which can supersede the commander's orders.
Part of what encourages cooperation is that there is fundamental Good and Evil, and weaker (forgotten) pantheons are more easily corrupted or destroyed by demons and other gods. This is a way for some to simply survive.
But things change, force align and realign. Factions arise, conspire, and fall. And there are outsiders: neutral, benevolent, antagonists. For example, some gods act with more independence in places where Islam or Christianity may be the rule, but it's so rife with co-opted practices that the power is in a state of flux. And then in others, forces for good and evil and just basic humanity and human will or ambition have manipulated and even corrupted some of these forces. China, for example, is almost entirely free from their influence even with actual Christian and Islamic populations. In that case it is due to a neutrality pact made between Heaven and the Celestial Bureaucracy, the Chinese equivalent of a confederation of faiths and pantheons operating under a similar basic framework throughout China and eastern Asia. Another has been under negotiation in the Indian Subcontinent for centuries.
Meanwhile, there are forces in Heaven trying to subsume the indentured pantheons, and even other members of the Abrahamic orders. In the name of Fundamentalism, these angels and saints and even some gods are trying to corrupt or destroy the faith in, basically, themselves. They see it as a risk worth taking strengthen their own hand by weakening the others, as to accumulate personal power for themselves.
Character idea
Puck and a Fox Spirit team up in Hong Kong (think Cold War Berlin with spirits) to take down a rogue (whatever. Decide later). Hijinks ensue as St. Michael (Yelling Captain) rides their asses, but they get results, dammit. And then at the end, Mike and his Chinese counterpart decides that maybe these two fucking lunatics should work together in this and other diplomatically “sensitive” locales.
I'm now working on this as a separate comic idea and trying to further flesh out the universe in terms of who's aligned, who's independent, and who's actually out to bring down the whole system.
So I may have mentioned before that as an aspiring writer, I wanted to collaborate with an artist to create an independent comic. Having no artistic talent, I had hoped to meet someone with such talents who also wants to get his name out there, and work together on a project either conceived by one person or many as a team effort. You also may have heard that I was given such an opportunity by a freelance artist and his cohorts, although that project is currently on hiatus until sometime later this year. Which leaves me hoping to work on something else in the meantime, to ease my creative urges.
One of those aforementioned people referred me to this site, which looks very promising, but so far seems more focused in would-be writers hiring artists instead of vice versa. I'll keep on checking the site, but I also wanted to ask you if there were other, similar websites that I should check out.
So I may have mentioned before that as an aspiring writer, I wanted to collaborate with an artist to create an independent comic. Having no artistic talent, I had hoped to meet someone with such talents who also wants to get his name out there, and work together on a project either conceived by one person or many as a team effort. You also may have heard that I was given such an opportunity by a freelance artist and his cohorts, although that project is currently on hiatus until sometime later this year. Which leaves me hoping to work on something else in the meantime, to ease my creative urges.
One of those aforementioned people referred me to this site, which looks very promising, but so far seems more focused in would-be writers hiring artists instead of vice versa. I'll keep on checking the site, but I also wanted to ask you if there were other, similar websites that I should check out.
You could try just scripting a thing with an artist, like TLB's Sentry Duty anthology project. I, too, am a budding comic writer who absolutely cannot draw at all. Believe me, I have tried. I have terrible hand-eye coordination and had to drop out of art class to keep from failing. I've wasted money and hours upon hours trying to learn how to draw. I can write though, so I am focusing on that.
So, turns out my younger brother knows a dude who works for a local free magazine that's published in my town, and they're looking for someone to do a comic strip for them. So my brother let this guy know that hey, I (sometimes, but not often) do comics, and said I'd send him some stuff.
Now, here's the thing. I don't consider myself very funny, and I don't really know how to write newspaper style gag strips. I don't really even enjoy reading them all that much. But I feel obligated to try. The magazine itself is kind of an alternative thing, which talks about local entertainment and stuff, and has in the past, boasted comics like Life is Hell, and a cool little thing called Shrunken Head Joe. But a few years ago those both got pulled, and the comic section was taken over by a truly terrible comic, which was pretty much nothing but in-jokes done in an amateurish manga style. And recently that vanished too, apparently due to the creator's inability to meet the once-a-month deadline.
So, all that said, here are the scripts I currently plan to do as kind of a tryout for the gig.
Silver Skeleton and the Syndicate of Supervillains
STRIP ONE
PANEL ONE- Silver Skeleton stands on an elevated stage, arms wide, hands balled into fists, before an assembly of his henchmen, the Skullmen. He is visible in the background, while the back of his henchmen's heads are in the foreground.
Silver Skeleton: Today is the day! The day we kill Astoundingman!
PANEL TWO- The POV has shifted, with Silver Skeleton now prominent in the foreground, his henchmen visible in the background, a large cluster of black-clothed figures with Skulls printed on their masks. At the front of the group is a sole henchman, his uniform entirely grey. The Skeleton meanwhile, is still gesticulating wildly, one arm at his side as he paces across the stage, and one hand held up in front of him, his index finger extended.
Silver Skeleton: For too long that idiot has stood in my way! For too long he's--
PANEL THREE- Same panel, but now the Skeleton has shifted his attention to the sole grey-clothed henchman in the group, as have all the other henchman, the entire group's heads having turned towards the offending henchman. The Skeleton's index finger is still extended. No one speaks.
PANEL FOUR- Same panel, the Skeleton has shed all his supervillain bravado, doing a facepalm as his shoulders slump. The collection of black-clothed henchman still stare harshly at the grey henchman, who stares abashedly at the ground.
Silver Skeleton: Again Jeff? Seriously, the tag says color-fast detergent only.
Jeff: Sorry Boss.
STRIP TWO
PANEL ONE- The Silver Skeleton stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his chief mad superscientist, the Sciencepider. Both hold large, unfolded schematics with assembly instructions and lines of indecipherable words on them. Their heads are both turned down, their eyes scanning the pages.
Silver Skeleton: Is this right? This isn't right.
Sciencepider: Well, the instructions were in Japanese.
PANEL TWO- The POV has shifted, the viewer now looking down on the pair, their arms at their sides, holding the schematics, their faces turned up, towards the viewer. Sciencepider's brows are furrowed in concentration over each of his eight eyes.
Silver Skeleton: Thought you read Japanese.
Sciencepider: No, I just speak it. I told you that.
Silver Skeleton: This isn't right. Did we have parts left over?
PANEL THREE- The POV is much farther back now, as we see what the pair was regarding in the previous panel, a giant, headless mecha, in the style of Gundam or Red Ronin. The two stand on an elevated platform, like the kind astronauts would use to board a rocket, no more than two tiny, featureless figures.
STRIP THREE
PANEL ONE- Silver Skeleton and Sciencepider stand beside one another, arms crossed, the Skeleton cradling his chin in his palm. Around them are the accoutrements of a well-stocked sci-fi laboratory.
Silver Skeleton: I know I gave you carte blanche when it came to creating my monster bodyguard--
PANEL TWO- A horrifying bear-monster lunges at the viewer.
Silver Skeleton [caption]: --and I was pretty psyched when you told me you were using a bear. But I was thinking grizzly--
PANEL THREE- Sciencepider and Silver Skeleton are in the foreground, the reader looking between them to see a fat, panda bear monster, resting on its side.
Silver Skeleton: --not panda. Has this thing woken up to do anything but eat and crap?
Sciencepider: N-
Silver Skeleton: Try again.
I thought about trying to write a single-panel The Far Side/Addams Family kind of strip, but what little sense of humor I have relies heavily on silent panels/awkward pauses and dialogue, so that was out. I also thought about writing something more in the vein of a slice of life genre, but really, it's not like I can compete with Dilbert or Baby Blues, so there's not much point in trying.
Anyway, let me know what you think about the scripts, what you'd change, what doesn't work, etc. I think the third strip is easily the weakest, and am tempted to scrap it altogether.
I'm going to keep thinking up ideas for strips that may be more appealing to non-nerds in the meantime.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
Munch this chance is totally like One Tree Hill!
Your first strip is good, the strongest of the bunch, and it allows you to go either with making Silver Skeleton be this ADD/Manic Depresive villain or just a villain who is always let down by his henchmen.
If you maybe start it to be moving up the ladder from wanting to kill Astoundingman, then something between foot soldier and mad scienctist, it would flow better. Maybe something about some super death ray instead of a monster bodyguard? Like Silver Skeleton says "Fire the Death Ray!" but the henchman then goes and fires Deaf Ray from the organization, and hilarity ensues because they sound alike hurp durp Family Guy.
Your first strip is good, the strongest of the bunch, and it allows you to go either with making Silver Skeleton be this ADD/Manic Depresive villain or just a villain who is always let down by his henchmen.
If you maybe start it to be moving up the ladder from wanting to kill Astoundingman, then something between foot soldier and mad scienctist, it would flow better. Maybe something about some super death ray instead of a monster bodyguard? Like Silver Skeleton says "Fire the Death Ray!" but the henchman then goes and fires Deaf Ray from the organization, and hilarity ensues because they sound alike hurp durp Family Guy.
I never watched One Tree Hill, and I now think less of you knowing that you have.
On Silver Skeleton's characterization, he's definitely a villain in the mold of The Venture Brothers' Monarch, or someone like that. He's total supervillain middle-management, who's just really trying to get noticed by the bosses so he can get a promotion. So he tries to act like a Dr. Doom or a Magneto and make grandiose speeches and pontificate, but usually fails miserably, because he doesn't really share that mindset, or that psychosis.
I actually created the character to use in one of my many fallow projects, titled Silver Skeleton and the Mid-Life Crisis. Basically, it was about a villain who has a mid-life crisis, and decides to kick off a Crisis of the Infinite or of Infinite Earths variety, so as to validate his heretofore wasted life. It's still something I want to do one day.
And hey, that Death Ray joke gives me an idea for another henchman joke. The punchline: "Silver Skeleton Sucks," written on the moon. I fear writing on the moon has been done a few too many times though.
TLB I'm seriously working on Krampus v.s. Kringle. I did some tiny thumbnails, now I'm working on some refined layouts (which I'll post as soon as I finish them), and then I'll move on to doing pencils and inks.
It's a process!
My goal is to have the thing in the can by Christmas. I even went out and bought a bunch of new Bristol board and pens and stuff. I'm making moves man!
Munch, create a couple of slacker henchmen characters and play them off like a riff on Beetle Bailey. If you really want to play the protagonist as a striving middle manager, go all the way and make it a super villain version of the Office.
To commemorate finishing another sketchbook, I decided to do a little one page, dialogue-free comic in the back. I'm still penciling in background details and finishing up the last two panels. Hopefully I'll finish it today. The greyscale is just something I tossed on as an experiment, to give it a little more depth and make the figures pop out a bit more.
Oh, and here's a J'onn redesign I started a long time ago for one of my little mock pitches, but never finished until recently. The general idea behind the redesign is that, following his resurrection, J'onn establishes New Mars, an island society dedicated to teaching humans about Martian culture. He decides to ditch the superhero duds, and adopt something more casual. That said, good lord, what was I thinking with the beaded jewelry?
In broad strokes; Vic and Rex go to investigate an Area 51-like place, and meet a special guest star in the last panel.
More specifically; panel one, Vic's doing that thing where you put your curled index finger under your lip while in deep thought. Rex is curling around him as kind of a smoky question mark-shaped apparition. In the background is a stasis tube holding a comatose white martian. In the corridor a shadow can be seen against the wall.
Panel two, Vic's explaining something to Vic, who's floating around.
Panel three, Rex looks skeptical.
Panel four, Vic holds up his index finger in a, "Wait a second," or, "Eureka!" kind of motion.
This idea came from a nightmare about a guy being chased by Bane after seeing Bane throw his dad out of a window-- the guy said "jesus mary and joseph, don't snap my spine!" so Bane threw him out of a 17th story window.
Basically, a juvenile deliquent sees a Bad Dude kill his hoodlum dad, so he sets off on a path to become a henchman for a rival Bad Dude. Changes his ID, joins the military to learn how to fight, etc. I need a hook of some sort, but it is fun to have an idea.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
I have to say, it seems like wannabe comic creators are always asking how to break into DC or Marvel, but every creator or editor interview I've ever read basically says the same thing.
If you're an artist: 1) Be very good at drawing. 2) Be capable of meeting deadlines. 3) Either have your portfolio reviewed at a convention, or make a name for yourself doing small press, creator-owned, or webcomics. Hope an editor likes your work, or you know someone at the company.
If you're a writer: 1) Be very good at writing. 2) Be capable of meeting deadlines. 3) Write for a TV show, a novel, or a creator-owned comic. Hope an editor likes your work, or you know someone at the company. Hope a little harder than artists, because most writers already working for DC or Marvel are writing 3+ books a piece.
I mean, I'm sure there are some other, less obvious things, but if you look at the majority if people working in comics who didn't transition from novels, TV, movies, concept art, game design, or whatever the Hell else, they pretty much all just did a string of things at a smaller company, until eventually catching some editor's attention.
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GOOD ONE HEH
I recently had a bit of inspiration during a boring conference call and slammed out some ideas for a Marvel pitch. Barring a skyrocketing ascendancy into the upper echelons of the comic industry, this will never see the light of day, but it sounds cool to me. Let me know what you guys think.
Ultimate Comics Hawk-Owl and the New Warriors
The format for this book will be two 11 page stories. The first half of the book will be a Hawk-Owl story and the second half will be a New Warriors story. The two halves will occasionally cross over and due to their being based in Chicago and that there is a common character between them, the various story arcs will always have common threads running between them.
Time period: This book takes place in the modern, post Ultimatum era of the Ultimate universe (hereafter referred to as 1610).
Setting: Chicago. Like NYC and other major cities, Chicago is undergoing major rebuilding after the events of Ultimatum.
HAWK-OWL
The Premise: In the wake of Ultimatum, the nation rebuilds, presenting a perfect opportunity for criminals and psychopaths, loosed by the tragedy, to burrow into society and do their dirty work. Jack Danner had only been treating his vigilantism as the caped Hawk-Owl as an X-treme hobby, but when a close friend falls victim to one of the new super-powered (questionably sane) criminals plaguing the city, Jack must turn his hobby into a serious mission to rid Chicago of the evil that threatens to destroy it. But with a suddenly secretive and brooding sidekick, an annoyingly effective female also-ran, and a resentful police captain as his allies, can he marshal the forces necessary to save Chicago? Who is robbing priceless items from the most secure buildings in the Chicago-land area? Why are there ninjas running around in the shadows of Chicago? And what does Nick Fury have planned for Hawk-Owl’s future?
CAST
Hawk-Owl
Night Thrasher (formerly Woody)
Daniel Toliver
Lee
Aunt Ann
Captain Vincent Gonzalez
Hawk-Owlette
Villains/Antagonists
Black Cat
The Hand, led by Plan Chu (The Yellow Claw)
Elektra
The Tinkerer
Punisher
AIM
Nick Fury
The Ultimates
NEW WARRIORS
The Premise: In the wake of the Ultimatum disaster, Hank Kipple decides it’s time for a change. The first change is to ditch the costume and persona of the more light-hearted Woody and assume the identity of Night Thrasher, a more serious hero for more serious times. In his personal life, he applies to and is accepted into Emma Frost’s School of Tomorrow, where he can be around other gifted students like him. There, he is disgusted to see other teens with amazing powers but who do nothing with them to help the world. His opinion changes when he, a few of his fellow students, and several other powered bystanders team up to thwart the Circus of Crime. Hank decides that maybe Chicago needs a team of heroes and goes about recruiting his impromptu allies into an official team.
CAST
Night Thrasher
Nova
Silhouette
Namorita
Firestar
Speedball
Rictor
(School of Tomorrow)
Emma Frost
Geldoff
Havok
Polaris
Villains/Antagonists
Circus of Crime
Roxxon
- Beetle
- Deadpool
Sinister
Supernova (Garthan Saal)
AIM
The Hand
Nick Fury
TL;DR - Post-Ultimatum, Hawk-Owl, the Ultimate version of Batman, must confront the influx of criminals, super powered psychos, and shadowy groups that threaten Chicago. Meanwhile, his sidekick Night Thrasher (formerly known as Woody) forms the New Warriors, a group of gifted teens that combat super powered threats to Chicago.
EDIT: I forgot to add that the origins for the New Warriors characters are going to be somewhat different than the 616 versions. I'll add them as I think them up.
Nova
In the meantime, some quick snippets of ideas I've been mulling over.
-An Atom story that chronicles Ray Palmer's depression following Identity Crisis, and his attempts to withdraw from, and later rejoin, the world at large. Villains would include the Brown Recluse, an oncologist researching tumor-shrinking techniques in his microscopic lab, who suddenly has his funding taken away, the Hermit Crab, a deviant voyeur who lives inside the brains of the rich and famous, controlling their actions and living vicariously though them, even as he slowly drives them mad, and some fey folk who begin knocking off shrinking heroes like the Minuteman, Bluejay, Doll Man, and Tiny Tim, due to the perceived threat to their people that such tiny heroes represent.
-A Hank Pym story following the hero as he's forced to go into deep cover as a supervillain in order to prevent a major crisis-level event, and his rise to power within the echelons of villainy. The book would be one part a-day-in-the-life, and one-part crime thriller, as Hank realizes just how deep he's in.
-Animal Man, one of the ultimate Average Joes of the superhero community, is forced to take a job with the Department of Extranormal Operations, as their Chief Cryptozoologist. Teamed with Rex the Wonder Dog, Buddy travels the globe, cataloging, protecting, and investigating cryptids. His supporting cast would be comprised of fellow cryptozoologists such as Loco Lobo, the Lycanthropic Luchadore of Mexico, Spring-Heeled Jacqueline of the United Kingdoms, and Detective Chimp, as well as Buddy's family, the Bakers, and with villains such as the Leeds Devil, Mothman, and Sasquatch to oppose him.
-Martian Manhunter returns from the dead and, troubled by the thought that Martian culture very nearly died with him, establishes New Mars on a volcanic island, which he purchased some decades ago, welcoming all who would learn the ways of the Martians. Martian fever quickly sweeps the globe with the release of J'onn's book, A History of Mars, and he finds himself set upon by irate nations, mad cultists decrying him as the end of humanity, and a mysterious enemy with links to the telepathic pyroplague which destroyed his people. Supporting him in his efforts to build a Martian utopia are Miss Martian, Gypsy, and Son of Vulcan, white martian hunter extraordinaire.
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The J'onn in my story would basically be a dude who's finally stopped holding back, opening himself up to the world, and really wearing his heart on his sleeve. As a consequence, he'd be a bit more visually dynamic, physically shifting his body to match his mood; when he's angry he bulks up to ridiculous Doug Mahnke-ian proportions, and his skin darkens until it's a greenish black, when he's sad he withers a bit and becomes a chalky yellow-green, and when he's out and about doing the superhero thing he looks much as he always has, though a bit larger, taking on a physique reminiscent of Marvel's jovial Hercules, and among friends his muscular definition fades, and his body loses all its sharp curves and lines, becoming more rounded and generally welcoming.
I should really just type all this stuff out.
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I was recommended by DouglasDanger to come and post here. I've been a Writer's Block forumer for about three or four years now, occasionally posted in this forum too (mostly about the dreaded indie comics).
Anyway, I recently landed my first publication with Red 5 Comics. Here's a link:
http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0906/19/red5sept.htm
Douglas wanted me to share some pitch tips, which I posted in the news thread, but I'll post here as well. Hope it helps.
Well, I actually did some work for hire for Red 5 in August of last year. They sent me a PDF with a list of very short ideas with a title and I took those nuggets and turned them into a full series synopsis with complete cast, an issue guide, etc.
So, I'd been in frequent contact with Red 5 from that point.
I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. NETWORKING.
That's my advice for a successful pitch. Go talk to editors, make friends with comic people, get your name out there. To start, it's probably best to have a completed pitch so that when you do meet editors, you have something to show them. Honestly, it's a lot harder for writers, because, not many people will want to read a script. If you can find an artist who is willing to collaborate, or I suppose if you believe enough in your script to pay an artist for the pitch, that's the first step.
I'm very lucky, I landed both of my artists on the hope we would get our names out on the shelves, which has paid off fortunately.
My pitch's uniformly were formatted this way:
1)Introduction - quick bio and a summary of the story including tone/audience/synopsis
2)Actual Pages - completed, no pages with just pencil or missing lettering. Entirely complete
3)First Issue Script - tack that baby on at the end.
I printed them off in a nice binder package when I went to the Calgary Comic Expo with the notion to give them to editors. It cost about $10 a book I think. I still think it was unnecessary, but I did get to speak with an editor who flipped through it with me. So, take that for what it's worth.
So, as I said above, networking played the largest part, getting your work in front of the editor. That means going to cons, and when you do, go with the mindset of a job application. Know your pitch before you go speak to the editor, because if you're like me, you'll freeze up and just shove it into their hands. Gotta sell that baby.
Online is another way you can submit, and there are a few small press publishers that are excellent at getting back to you fairly quickly. (Ape Entertainment, Shadowline, etc) Even if it's rejection, you hear back. The waiting game sucks.
Last, don't give up. Seriously. I've been trying for 5 years to get my work published, and it's been a hard, painful run. I firmly believe I succeeded because I just kept putting projects together and kept pitching. Right now I have 6 potential series sitting on my hard drive, but Beautiful Creatures was the first to finally see the light of day. The other 6? Lots of rejection letters or no response at all.
Keep putting your ideas down and getting teams together who share your enthusiasm and desire to become published.
Wow, that's a lot of text.
Summary:
1)Networking
2)Be professional
3)Be persistent
Hope that helps!
Question on meeting with editors: how'd you set those up? Just met them at their tables, or at panels? I'm guessing they're used to being accosted by hungry creators. :P
Also, any advice on enticing artists onto projects?
It depends on the con. I've only gone to the Calgary Comic Expo so far, so in that time I've spoken with about 4 editors. Luckily, at a con of that size, their time is far less occupied than they would be at something like NYCC or SDCC. I actually was able to talk with Mark Waid for five or ten minutes, totally free of interruption. I'd recommend trying to find a smaller con where editors show up. Face time is invaluable.
I guess that falls back into my point about professionalism. You're 100% right about editors being swarmed by creators, so you have to come across confident about your project. I was unable to attend SDCC last year, but last year the artist I worked on a project called Snow Angel with was able to go and he said, uniformly, that the people in lines were nervous as hell and stumbled over their words when they talked to the editors. He said that these people were written off before the editor even looked at the material.
Finding artists can be tricky. There are a lot of differing opinions on how to work with an artist. My first pitch I paid an artist $1000, when I was really broke. That project never got completed and still sits on my hard drive, waiting to be rewritten. The artist did give the money back in the end, but one of the things I've concluded for myself, is that my stories and my scripts are well written and interesting. I'm contributing all those ideas and characters, while the artist supplies the visuals. It's a team effort, we both put in the time and we can both possibly benefit. So, I generally don't pay artists for a pitch.
That said, you have to keep in mind that a pitch isn't a guarentee, obviously. So, an artist is illustrating on the hope of publication, which doesn't put food on their table. They are entirely justified in asking a page rate. You could possible pay for the pitch, and work out a deal that once you are published, at that point you share royalties and ownership of the project. Not a bad way to go about it.
My biggest networking tool to meet artists has been Comicspace. I also visit Deviantart once in awhile and contact people through that.
The artist I paid the $1000 was a concept artist as well, and he wanted to work in the video game industry. It all depends on an individual's goals.
I think that's why I've found success in comicspace, as a lot of artists there are very focused on getting into the comic industry.
It also helps to have a solid script and story concept.
www.vehicle-magazine.com
Just for reference sake, Roberto (Sunspot) was playing Alec Baldwin's character as a SHIELD agent (I used Sitwell because, why not?). It's with the Ellis Thunderbolts, and the Nick Fury references are from the comic itself. So...
You may find this helpful Douglas.
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Thanks! I'm working at a couple of really intense fight scenes and am a bit anxious about them.
But anyway, here's the idea as I submitted it to a friend when he asked what I was doing that got me so excited to write again.
Part of what encourages cooperation is that there is fundamental Good and Evil, and weaker (forgotten) pantheons are more easily corrupted or destroyed by demons and other gods. This is a way for some to simply survive.
But things change, force align and realign. Factions arise, conspire, and fall. And there are outsiders: neutral, benevolent, antagonists. For example, some gods act with more independence in places where Islam or Christianity may be the rule, but it's so rife with co-opted practices that the power is in a state of flux. And then in others, forces for good and evil and just basic humanity and human will or ambition have manipulated and even corrupted some of these forces. China, for example, is almost entirely free from their influence even with actual Christian and Islamic populations. In that case it is due to a neutrality pact made between Heaven and the Celestial Bureaucracy, the Chinese equivalent of a confederation of faiths and pantheons operating under a similar basic framework throughout China and eastern Asia. Another has been under negotiation in the Indian Subcontinent for centuries.
Meanwhile, there are forces in Heaven trying to subsume the indentured pantheons, and even other members of the Abrahamic orders. In the name of Fundamentalism, these angels and saints and even some gods are trying to corrupt or destroy the faith in, basically, themselves. They see it as a risk worth taking strengthen their own hand by weakening the others, as to accumulate personal power for themselves.
Character idea
Puck and a Fox Spirit team up in Hong Kong (think Cold War Berlin with spirits) to take down a rogue (whatever. Decide later). Hijinks ensue as St. Michael (Yelling Captain) rides their asses, but they get results, dammit. And then at the end, Mike and his Chinese counterpart decides that maybe these two fucking lunatics should work together in this and other diplomatically “sensitive” locales.
I'm now working on this as a separate comic idea and trying to further flesh out the universe in terms of who's aligned, who's independent, and who's actually out to bring down the whole system.
One of those aforementioned people referred me to this site, which looks very promising, but so far seems more focused in would-be writers hiring artists instead of vice versa. I'll keep on checking the site, but I also wanted to ask you if there were other, similar websites that I should check out.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
You could try just scripting a thing with an artist, like TLB's Sentry Duty anthology project. I, too, am a budding comic writer who absolutely cannot draw at all. Believe me, I have tried. I have terrible hand-eye coordination and had to drop out of art class to keep from failing. I've wasted money and hours upon hours trying to learn how to draw. I can write though, so I am focusing on that.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
here is the thread
it may be too late, i have no idea. I would PM TLB or post in there.
Now, here's the thing. I don't consider myself very funny, and I don't really know how to write newspaper style gag strips. I don't really even enjoy reading them all that much. But I feel obligated to try. The magazine itself is kind of an alternative thing, which talks about local entertainment and stuff, and has in the past, boasted comics like Life is Hell, and a cool little thing called Shrunken Head Joe. But a few years ago those both got pulled, and the comic section was taken over by a truly terrible comic, which was pretty much nothing but in-jokes done in an amateurish manga style. And recently that vanished too, apparently due to the creator's inability to meet the once-a-month deadline.
So, all that said, here are the scripts I currently plan to do as kind of a tryout for the gig.
STRIP ONE
PANEL ONE- Silver Skeleton stands on an elevated stage, arms wide, hands balled into fists, before an assembly of his henchmen, the Skullmen. He is visible in the background, while the back of his henchmen's heads are in the foreground.
Silver Skeleton: Today is the day! The day we kill Astoundingman!
PANEL TWO- The POV has shifted, with Silver Skeleton now prominent in the foreground, his henchmen visible in the background, a large cluster of black-clothed figures with Skulls printed on their masks. At the front of the group is a sole henchman, his uniform entirely grey. The Skeleton meanwhile, is still gesticulating wildly, one arm at his side as he paces across the stage, and one hand held up in front of him, his index finger extended.
Silver Skeleton: For too long that idiot has stood in my way! For too long he's--
PANEL THREE- Same panel, but now the Skeleton has shifted his attention to the sole grey-clothed henchman in the group, as have all the other henchman, the entire group's heads having turned towards the offending henchman. The Skeleton's index finger is still extended. No one speaks.
PANEL FOUR- Same panel, the Skeleton has shed all his supervillain bravado, doing a facepalm as his shoulders slump. The collection of black-clothed henchman still stare harshly at the grey henchman, who stares abashedly at the ground.
Silver Skeleton: Again Jeff? Seriously, the tag says color-fast detergent only.
Jeff: Sorry Boss.
STRIP TWO
PANEL ONE- The Silver Skeleton stands shoulder-to-shoulder with his chief mad superscientist, the Sciencepider. Both hold large, unfolded schematics with assembly instructions and lines of indecipherable words on them. Their heads are both turned down, their eyes scanning the pages.
Silver Skeleton: Is this right? This isn't right.
Sciencepider: Well, the instructions were in Japanese.
PANEL TWO- The POV has shifted, the viewer now looking down on the pair, their arms at their sides, holding the schematics, their faces turned up, towards the viewer. Sciencepider's brows are furrowed in concentration over each of his eight eyes.
Silver Skeleton: Thought you read Japanese.
Sciencepider: No, I just speak it. I told you that.
Silver Skeleton: This isn't right. Did we have parts left over?
PANEL THREE- The POV is much farther back now, as we see what the pair was regarding in the previous panel, a giant, headless mecha, in the style of Gundam or Red Ronin. The two stand on an elevated platform, like the kind astronauts would use to board a rocket, no more than two tiny, featureless figures.
STRIP THREE
PANEL ONE- Silver Skeleton and Sciencepider stand beside one another, arms crossed, the Skeleton cradling his chin in his palm. Around them are the accoutrements of a well-stocked sci-fi laboratory.
Silver Skeleton: I know I gave you carte blanche when it came to creating my monster bodyguard--
PANEL TWO- A horrifying bear-monster lunges at the viewer.
Silver Skeleton [caption]: --and I was pretty psyched when you told me you were using a bear. But I was thinking grizzly--
PANEL THREE- Sciencepider and Silver Skeleton are in the foreground, the reader looking between them to see a fat, panda bear monster, resting on its side.
Silver Skeleton: --not panda. Has this thing woken up to do anything but eat and crap?
Sciencepider: N-
Silver Skeleton: Try again.
I thought about trying to write a single-panel The Far Side/Addams Family kind of strip, but what little sense of humor I have relies heavily on silent panels/awkward pauses and dialogue, so that was out. I also thought about writing something more in the vein of a slice of life genre, but really, it's not like I can compete with Dilbert or Baby Blues, so there's not much point in trying.
Anyway, let me know what you think about the scripts, what you'd change, what doesn't work, etc. I think the third strip is easily the weakest, and am tempted to scrap it altogether.
I'm going to keep thinking up ideas for strips that may be more appealing to non-nerds in the meantime.
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Your first strip is good, the strongest of the bunch, and it allows you to go either with making Silver Skeleton be this ADD/Manic Depresive villain or just a villain who is always let down by his henchmen.
If you maybe start it to be moving up the ladder from wanting to kill Astoundingman, then something between foot soldier and mad scienctist, it would flow better. Maybe something about some super death ray instead of a monster bodyguard? Like Silver Skeleton says "Fire the Death Ray!" but the henchman then goes and fires Deaf Ray from the organization, and hilarity ensues because they sound alike hurp durp Family Guy.
but it'll cost you
I never watched One Tree Hill, and I now think less of you knowing that you have.
On Silver Skeleton's characterization, he's definitely a villain in the mold of The Venture Brothers' Monarch, or someone like that. He's total supervillain middle-management, who's just really trying to get noticed by the bosses so he can get a promotion. So he tries to act like a Dr. Doom or a Magneto and make grandiose speeches and pontificate, but usually fails miserably, because he doesn't really share that mindset, or that psychosis.
I actually created the character to use in one of my many fallow projects, titled Silver Skeleton and the Mid-Life Crisis. Basically, it was about a villain who has a mid-life crisis, and decides to kick off a Crisis of the Infinite or of Infinite Earths variety, so as to validate his heretofore wasted life. It's still something I want to do one day.
And hey, that Death Ray joke gives me an idea for another henchman joke. The punchline: "Silver Skeleton Sucks," written on the moon. I fear writing on the moon has been done a few too many times though.
TLB I'm seriously working on Krampus v.s. Kringle. I did some tiny thumbnails, now I'm working on some refined layouts (which I'll post as soon as I finish them), and then I'll move on to doing pencils and inks.
It's a process!
My goal is to have the thing in the can by Christmas. I even went out and bought a bunch of new Bristol board and pens and stuff. I'm making moves man!
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you better
Oh, and here's a J'onn redesign I started a long time ago for one of my little mock pitches, but never finished until recently. The general idea behind the redesign is that, following his resurrection, J'onn establishes New Mars, an island society dedicated to teaching humans about Martian culture. He decides to ditch the superhero duds, and adopt something more casual. That said, good lord, what was I thinking with the beaded jewelry?
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https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
In broad strokes; Vic and Rex go to investigate an Area 51-like place, and meet a special guest star in the last panel.
More specifically; panel one, Vic's doing that thing where you put your curled index finger under your lip while in deep thought. Rex is curling around him as kind of a smoky question mark-shaped apparition. In the background is a stasis tube holding a comatose white martian. In the corridor a shadow can be seen against the wall.
Panel two, Vic's explaining something to Vic, who's floating around.
Panel three, Rex looks skeptical.
Panel four, Vic holds up his index finger in a, "Wait a second," or, "Eureka!" kind of motion.
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Basically, a juvenile deliquent sees a Bad Dude kill his hoodlum dad, so he sets off on a path to become a henchman for a rival Bad Dude. Changes his ID, joins the military to learn how to fight, etc. I need a hook of some sort, but it is fun to have an idea.
It seems to be just for artists right now.
If you're an artist: 1) Be very good at drawing. 2) Be capable of meeting deadlines. 3) Either have your portfolio reviewed at a convention, or make a name for yourself doing small press, creator-owned, or webcomics. Hope an editor likes your work, or you know someone at the company.
If you're a writer: 1) Be very good at writing. 2) Be capable of meeting deadlines. 3) Write for a TV show, a novel, or a creator-owned comic. Hope an editor likes your work, or you know someone at the company. Hope a little harder than artists, because most writers already working for DC or Marvel are writing 3+ books a piece.
I mean, I'm sure there are some other, less obvious things, but if you look at the majority if people working in comics who didn't transition from novels, TV, movies, concept art, game design, or whatever the Hell else, they pretty much all just did a string of things at a smaller company, until eventually catching some editor's attention.
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