Development Process, Part 3 (redux)

(I titled this a "redux" because, for some reason when I went to post it the other day along with the others, it went up but upon some views, I was informed that it didn't have the full essay. So, here we go again!)

The new challenge I faced was something that writers from nearly every field of entertainment find themselves dealing with: getting people to try something out despite it having a (seemingly) distinct appearance of genre.

I often use my sister as a barometer for ideas I have. To me, most of what I conjure up in mind sounds like it would be good and a thing others could find interest in. But we can't go through life always making decisions off our own "echo chambers" so, getting her to look at the idea for this series was something I knew would make it better.

She read the short chapters I had done in prose style, having some interesting critical points about it. She had read only the parts that sort of happened before Jules met Priscilla though, and it wasn't until I filled her in on what was to happen THERE, that I saw her interest really pique.

So, interestingly enough, I took that as a sign for how I would make the book appeal more.

I'd firmly establish and keep central the fact that "Thanks Jules" is, in a way, a love story.

Now, I can picture a bunch of people groaning at that. Seems like more and more books, films, and shows, are hinged on a relationship between two (or in some cases three) people. I don't want to seem like I'm "bandwagoning" on that. I hate being super trendy ESPECIALLY in entertainment. However, it was the themes I mentioned in the last two essays that brought me to those story elements. I could have made the book all sci-fi and by-passed the "feeling" that I'm trying to tap into the zeitgeist of the moment but, the things I wanted to explore would get lost in a "concept of the month" sort of set-up. And I didn't want to create a thing that rose and fell on that approach.

Taking all that into account, I had created a series of dilemmas. I couldn't escape the cringe that sci-fi gets from certain people and I also could not escape the wincing pain I knew the term "love story" would gain from a public flooded by so many. What was a guy to do?

Okay, so, a few paragraphs back I mentioned that the love story and the sci-fi coming together was based on opinions and crafty thought to entice readers. That certainly was in the mix...BUT, let me clarify. I liked both elements and they came up and seemed to mesh together nicely in my mind. Yet, I want people to read what I'm doing here and, even if I were to just run with what I liked, it didn't mean anyone else would be of like mind.

Thankfully, my cluster of conflicting thoughts met a very nice word of encouragement...in the form of an interview by Joe Casey on comicbookresources.com. He was being interviewed on some series he'd recently done and on what was coming up next and had this great response about how he chose projects, basically saying that it was important for him to like and be interested in the story for himself first. It stuck out to me like a beacon.

My process thus far had been calculating how I could take the story I was interested in and shape it into what would appeal to people. But Joe's take was, if you're passionate about your story, do it and let things go where they may.

Inspired by that and growing more excited by the developing of the story, I decided that IF I needed to give it a description, existential romantic sci-fi sounded cool. With that handled, I delved into the love story.

I didn't want it to read like or seem to read like, things I'd seen before with recent love stories. This caused me to "detox" from stories with such elements at play. I came at it and established 3 simple rules:

1.) Avoid love triangles (or quadrangles).

2.) Make it fun. Love is too often played for the BAD drama.

3.) No matter what fantastical things happen on the F.E.N.C.E. side of the story, always have there be a way it effects, echoes, or informs, the story of Jules and Pris.

And these would be the tools that would establish my writing a pitch/blurb for the series as well as undertaking the most dreaded thing a writer has to face:

"Page 1, panel 1."

Development Process, Part 2

I had figured out the way I was going to draw it. I knew the lengths I wanted the "chapters" to be. I had the rough idea of how it would connect to the themes I was looking to explore.

Unfortunately, as I'm sure more knowledgable and experienced creators in the industry would tell you, having just those things, does not a story make.

Thematically "Thanks Jules" comes from my long thoughts about two things which, I believe, have a pretty close connection: love and the loss of hope in the future. Its easy to tackle those things seperately, certainly there's a lot of ground to cover with each. It was just... the more I thought about them and the more conversations I listened in on, made me realize there was a general feeling of uncertainty people have, with both.

In that furtile ground I wanted the story rooted. But with a need for visual flair (not to mention a desire to challenge myself at creating visuals I wasn't accustomed to doing) I had to find some element to infuse a taste of adventure and action. So, to rack up tension as a container for those existential themes, I decided to place Julius (the "Jules" in the title) in a setting which would demand it. I tinkered with a few ideas and landed on the idea of tapping into the realm of sci-fi. Thus came about F.E.N.C.E. an acronymed organization that keeps the world safe from "impossible threats" whom Julius is an agent of.

F.E.N.C.E., oddly enough, isn't just a place he works though. I decided to create a back story for Julius which would allow us to, mostly, stick in the moments as he experiences them, foregoing the need for a lot of catching up or overblown exposition. Jules has amnesia and was discovered at the center of a an incursion from another world. The organization could find no relatives or past history on him, so it became his legal guardian. That simple. My thought was, if you experienced things as he did, it would allow a closer connect to the situations and emotions he would experience.

With his place in the sci-fi setting, I would have all the adventure I needed to juxtapose those very human emotions I desired to explore, while creating swift and fun tales that would be interesting in both visual and meta-textual ways.

But how would I make the book work for people who run at the sight of "sci-fi," regardless to if it has depth or not?

The answer to that would be...rather interesting.

 Rough sketch of F.E.N.C.E. logo.

Rough sketch of F.E.N.C.E. agent coat/armor .

Development process, Part 1

So, I figured a good first posting would be a look at the origins of what would become my series, "Thanks Jules!"

In deciding what would be my first foray into creating a comicbook/graphic novel series, I orginally planned to just do a story I had been developing for a few years. Its a story I believe in and plan on making but, the reason I chose NOT to do it, was that I felt I would need more time to craft it than my current schedule/obligations would allow. I needed instead to come up with something fresh and less gratuitously involved, something that would allow me to pick up and put down at a pace which would not harm the intention or look of the book.

The trouble with that was, I reeeeally didn't have much developed enough to attempt as a series. I did have some SHORT, short stories I tinker with unfortunately, most were simple, small, stories, nothing that would afford for more than an issue. (Also, they were generally, what some refer to as "talking head" stories; tales that would end up being just various panels of people talking. Not really a great idea for a sequential art project.)

While I was attempting to figure it all out, I remembered one thing that wasn't so simple, short, or visually less-inspired. I'd been tinkering with a short set of "moments" about a teenager who worked with adults and happens to meet the girl of his dreams...a year to date from the end of all existence, ha, ha. A few minutes of looking at the concept somewhat (and eventually combining it with some more fantastical elements) and the idea started to flow together as something a few issues could fill up in interesting ways.

But timing was STILL a problem. I do illustrations and designs, usually more detailed and heavily referenced pieces, for book and album covers. There really wasn't too much space inbetween for me to hammer out full penciled, inked, and colored work.

As fate would have it, the very answer I was looking for, was literally right infront of me. On my coffee table.

Sitting there was an old copy of a now-defunct comic industry magazine. The opened page had some pencils from an artists with a very "loose" and more comic strip-esque style. I had not thought much about what I could do to ease the drawing process until that moment but, the style of those illustrations wasn't too far off from how my rough layouts and thumbnails appeared...and those were things I was able to do in no-time flat!

I COULD do something in that sort of style! Maybe just slightly tighten my sketches in some places... keeping it loose in others. Also, taking the time to realistically think about it, with this being my first attempt at comics, I could allow myself a lot more leeway in terms of having the look "nailed down" before doing the pages. In a sense, it would be more of a working-out-the-kinks, sort of thing (effectively working on this project in a way uncommon to the demanding precision that design work required.) This gave me a good feeling. I was able to set out developing the project, taking moments from the prose version of the story and converting it into 10-16 page "issues."

Thus, all I needed was to make the story a bit more fantastic and energetic (something I could work on "writing" while doing errands or travelling between destinations.)

But how THAT happened, would come down to another inspired moment from out of nowhere...