Today, a classic Greek myth...and I break the five panels rule.
PANDORA
Panel 1. The wilderness. People clad in skins and furs frolic around a bonfire waving torches in the air. Their faces are full of ecstasy and joy.
CAPTION The gift of fire had freed man from darkness. It was a golden age on earth.
Panel 2. Olympus. The gods stand in a circle around a naked Pandora, the epitome of classical beauty. She's covering herself with her arms and her eyes are downcast, her face demure, almost sad.
CAPTION Enraged Jupiter decided to punish him with another gift: the gift of beauty without restraint.
Panel 3. Mercury presents Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Epimetheus is totally smitten with the girl. Pandora gazes into his eyes lovingly. Mercury is smiling at the terrible joke. Only Prometheus who stands off to the side looks suspicious.
CAPTION Blinded by lust Epimetheus ignored his brother's foresight and accepted Pandora, gave her free reign of his home, forbidding only one thing.
Panel 4. Close-up on the infamous box, more of an urn in this iteration. The sides are decorated with paintings of all manner of grotesque sins. The top is sealed with red wax that drips down the side like blood. Pandora's hands hover over it.
CAPTION Epimetheus possessed the jar in which Cronus had bound all the evils that plagued man: diseases of the body and sins of the soul.
Panel 5. Pandora opens the urn and a tide of hideous evil pours out of it. The look on Pandora's face is one of horror.
CAPTION In her foolish curiosity Pandora opened it and unleashed hell upon man.
Panel 6. The wilderness again. Man now fights man with weapons of iron, the forest is denuded by greed and a few unfortunates stagger around infected with plague. Everywhere fire burns out of control.
CAPTION The golden age was over. Thanks to Pandora man had learned that fire can also burn.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
30 Days, 30 Pages
So instead of trying and failing at National Novel Writing month AGAIN I'm going to attempt to tell 30 complete stories in thirty days. Most will probably suck but what the hey my non professional rep can take it. I'm posting the first one here.
CHEAT
PANEL 1 We are in a drafty chamber, the upper room of a crumbling tower on the edge of the wilderness. We can see through a window that the light is fading outside. The room is already full of shadows. Loki, a young man in his late twenties, already balding dressed in rumpled wizard's robes stands over an unlit candle making arcane looking gestures. The look on his face is one of frustration. The candle itself is conspicuously unlit. On the table surrounding the candle are various implements of the wizard's trade: alembics, tarot cards, an athame, and a very large book. Loki speaks a few nonsense incantations represented on the page by mystical looking squiggles.
PANEL 2 Close-up on the still unlit candle. Loki's hand hovers a few inches above the wick. His fingers are twisted in such a way as to control the magical energies. More gibberish comes out of his mouth (off panel) with an exclamation at the end.
PANEL 3 Close-up on Loki's face as an idea of such astonishing simplicity hits him (the proverbial "a ha!" moment).
PANEL 4 Close-up on Loki's hand as he flips open a zippo
cigarette lighter and makes fire.
PANEL 5 It is now fully dark. We can a see a full moon through the window outside. Loki is seated in a chair with his feet up on the table reading from the book while the candle burns (it's about half gone) at this point. Loki is smiling.
CHEAT
PANEL 1 We are in a drafty chamber, the upper room of a crumbling tower on the edge of the wilderness. We can see through a window that the light is fading outside. The room is already full of shadows. Loki, a young man in his late twenties, already balding dressed in rumpled wizard's robes stands over an unlit candle making arcane looking gestures. The look on his face is one of frustration. The candle itself is conspicuously unlit. On the table surrounding the candle are various implements of the wizard's trade: alembics, tarot cards, an athame, and a very large book. Loki speaks a few nonsense incantations represented on the page by mystical looking squiggles.
PANEL 2 Close-up on the still unlit candle. Loki's hand hovers a few inches above the wick. His fingers are twisted in such a way as to control the magical energies. More gibberish comes out of his mouth (off panel) with an exclamation at the end.
PANEL 3 Close-up on Loki's face as an idea of such astonishing simplicity hits him (the proverbial "a ha!" moment).
PANEL 4 Close-up on Loki's hand as he flips open a zippo
cigarette lighter and makes fire.
PANEL 5 It is now fully dark. We can a see a full moon through the window outside. Loki is seated in a chair with his feet up on the table reading from the book while the candle burns (it's about half gone) at this point. Loki is smiling.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero
As someone who has been involved in "the Games Workshop hobby" for many years I know Dan Abnett as the writer of some of the best gaming fiction available so naturally I was curious to see what Triumff, his first original novel, had to offer.
The story is set on an alternate Earth in which Elizabeth XXX rules an Anglo-Spanish unity forged when Elizabeth I married Spain's King Phillip. And there's magick, rediscovered by no less a personage than Leonardo Da Vinci. The year is 2010 but for all that technology has advanced it might as well be the late sixteenth century. A plot is afoot and the only one who can save Queen and country is Sir Rupert Triumff, lately returned from his discovery of Australia.
If you're an Abnett fan looking for something along the lines of Eisenhorn or Gaunt's Ghosts you'll be more than a little surprised by the tone, which is somewhere south of Pratchett. Don't expect any rigorous historical extrapolation either. For all that he uses four centuries of world history Abnett might as well have set the book in the reign of Elizabeth I. There are some truly god awful puns (I almost put the book down when the Swiss Army Rapier showed up) but there are quite a few laugh out loud funny bits.
On the plus side the book moves at a decent pace and is very hard to put down once you're into it. The setting is well realized if a bit silly, and the author's affection for and knowledge of Elizabethan England is apparent on every page. There are some interesting literary experiments as well. The narration is mostly third person but shifts into first when the narrator is actually present for events giving the whole book an air of unreliable omniscience that I don't think has ever been used before. The plot is nicely tied up in the end but at the same time the setting is big enough for further stories.
The story is set on an alternate Earth in which Elizabeth XXX rules an Anglo-Spanish unity forged when Elizabeth I married Spain's King Phillip. And there's magick, rediscovered by no less a personage than Leonardo Da Vinci. The year is 2010 but for all that technology has advanced it might as well be the late sixteenth century. A plot is afoot and the only one who can save Queen and country is Sir Rupert Triumff, lately returned from his discovery of Australia.
If you're an Abnett fan looking for something along the lines of Eisenhorn or Gaunt's Ghosts you'll be more than a little surprised by the tone, which is somewhere south of Pratchett. Don't expect any rigorous historical extrapolation either. For all that he uses four centuries of world history Abnett might as well have set the book in the reign of Elizabeth I. There are some truly god awful puns (I almost put the book down when the Swiss Army Rapier showed up) but there are quite a few laugh out loud funny bits.
On the plus side the book moves at a decent pace and is very hard to put down once you're into it. The setting is well realized if a bit silly, and the author's affection for and knowledge of Elizabethan England is apparent on every page. There are some interesting literary experiments as well. The narration is mostly third person but shifts into first when the narrator is actually present for events giving the whole book an air of unreliable omniscience that I don't think has ever been used before. The plot is nicely tied up in the end but at the same time the setting is big enough for further stories.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Secret Project
So last night I had a dream. It was so mega awesome that I had to start work on a secret project right away. All I will say for now is that it's a comic and it's epic. Nothing more concrete until the first draft is done!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
It's Done!
I came home last night to find the final page waiting in my e-mail. The story is done and it looks spectacular! Gavin and inker Nick Justus really pulled it off. We're talking about what we want to do next (something modern) and hopefully we'll get paid next time.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Thoughts on Writing
Cut and pasted from a reply I made to a thread on MillarWorld.
Read all you can. Don't just read comics but novels, short stories, newspapers...anything and everything in all genres. Don't just focus on super heroes or sci-fi fantasy but westerns, romance, crime, history. You won't like everything but it will all go to make you a better writer with more depth of knowledge.
Start talking to artists. Take art classes in your high school even if you can't draw because this will help you understand your artists. It will also expand your vocabulary of visual terms which will be invaluable when describing things in your scripts. You might want to PM Elliott Balson. He's an artist at about the same stage in his career who might be willing to illustrate some of your scripts for the practice (once he finishes work on his entry for our anthology).
Learn to take criticism. No one will respect you if you can't and it does help. And if an editor rejects you with any actual criticism at all (as opposed to a form letter that just says 'sorry') this is a good thing. The editor thinks you have potential and is trying to encourage you.
Listen to writers talk about writing. Type in just about any writer's name on YouTube and you'll get bunches of videos some of which might be valuable especially this from Alan Moore.
Learn to spell, or at least spell check, and develop a decent sense of grammar. You don't have to be an English teacher but no one will take you seriously if you can't tell the difference between : and ; or there and their.
Last but not least always remember that "talent" is crap. "Talent" is something people make up to explain why they fail. What separates a writer from a reader is nothing more than will: the will to sit down at the keys for lonely, unproductive hours hacking away at something that refuses to work, and then submit it for criticism and scorn from everyone. And then the will to do it all again when it is rejected. I highly recommend that if a writer needs a job while breaking in he should go into sales because it toughens you up to rejection like nothing else.
If you want to write, write. And good luck!
Read all you can. Don't just read comics but novels, short stories, newspapers...anything and everything in all genres. Don't just focus on super heroes or sci-fi fantasy but westerns, romance, crime, history. You won't like everything but it will all go to make you a better writer with more depth of knowledge.
Start talking to artists. Take art classes in your high school even if you can't draw because this will help you understand your artists. It will also expand your vocabulary of visual terms which will be invaluable when describing things in your scripts. You might want to PM Elliott Balson. He's an artist at about the same stage in his career who might be willing to illustrate some of your scripts for the practice (once he finishes work on his entry for our anthology).
Learn to take criticism. No one will respect you if you can't and it does help. And if an editor rejects you with any actual criticism at all (as opposed to a form letter that just says 'sorry') this is a good thing. The editor thinks you have potential and is trying to encourage you.
Listen to writers talk about writing. Type in just about any writer's name on YouTube and you'll get bunches of videos some of which might be valuable especially this from Alan Moore.
Learn to spell, or at least spell check, and develop a decent sense of grammar. You don't have to be an English teacher but no one will take you seriously if you can't tell the difference between : and ; or there and their.
Last but not least always remember that "talent" is crap. "Talent" is something people make up to explain why they fail. What separates a writer from a reader is nothing more than will: the will to sit down at the keys for lonely, unproductive hours hacking away at something that refuses to work, and then submit it for criticism and scorn from everyone. And then the will to do it all again when it is rejected. I highly recommend that if a writer needs a job while breaking in he should go into sales because it toughens you up to rejection like nothing else.
If you want to write, write. And good luck!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The Coolest Thing I've Seen All Week
Saw some of the first roughs for the story this evening and they look even better than the ones in my head. And tomorrow I see the first sonogram of my unborn child. Hopefully that will be as successful.
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