Life in the Projects

Yes, not everything I waste time with is stupid and just short-term nonsense. Some things I've been working on for a while, and do actually want to see through to the end. Now is about time I write an introduction to these serious projects of total seriousness.

Project A
This is a collaborative project with a friend of mine (who will know what it is upon reading the project title initial). It is a comic series with a limited (although what that limit is has not been decided yet) run, divided into a number of ‘volumes’ (or, at least that’s the plan right now). We’ve been developing it for about 6 years, although only 1 or 2 of those were of anything good.
I won’t bog anything down with pointless details, but I’ll let you know it’s a somewhat cartoonish sci-fi/action/adventure series. The actual story changes between volumes, and it is mostly made up of single issue stories with some multi parted ones thrown in when necessary. The basic structure reminds of some cartoon action series, but hopefully our book will suck less.
We’ve been kicking around ideas for this thing for years. We’ve been adding and removing concepts and characters in hopes of making something coherent eventually. Recently, we’ve been going about creating series bibles and first draft scripts, which would mean we are somewhat close to satisfaction. It’s a wondrous time.
One thing that seems to be slightly debated right now is tone. I always imagined this being somewhat comedic (the characters really can’t be taken that seriously). But I also agree with my friend that turning it into something more…substantial is a far better goal to shoot for. It’ll definitely require more thought in order to get it right.
Of course, all this story stuff won’t matter if we can’t find an artist. Yup, we both want to make a comic but neither of us can draw. Wacky world we live in, eh? Well, I’m sure we can convince some talented sucker to work for peanuts.

Project G
Project G is also a comic series, although I don’t have the benefit of a friend assisting me with it. Aside from that, this is pretty different from Project A…but also very similar. They actually do have some connections, but I’m going to downplay that because creating fictional universes is for losers.
This one is more of fantasy/sci-fi project, with a family bent. Given a bit more freedom with this concept, I’m going in the direction of ripping off Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman every chance I get. Including generous helpings of psychobabble, until I realize it is pretentious and boring. Even so, I try to create as many fun, weird, and interesting ideas as possible, while actually trying to develop my characters. It’s actually difficult in some instances; some of the concepts I’ve had for a while lend to some juicy, evolving personalities, while others don’t inspire much beyond ‘the x that y!’. This is a concern for all my projects, actually. I’m not exactly always aiming for *insert valued literary giant*, but I want some level of effort in there.
But much like the other comic project, this one requires I find an artist. It becomes more difficult when I want a specific style for this comic, as well as the ability to change style on a whim. I’ve actually been trying to think of an art style that is more creative than I had been imagining in the past, but I’m not too good at that, it seems. Maybe I should’ve learned to draw…

To be continued. Yep.