Hi all… I've read an obscene amount over the years, thousands of novels (fiction, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction, etc) and tens of thousands of comics (Malibu to Marvel, Dreamwave to DC, IDW to Image, etc). Does that mean automatically that I'm a good writer, of course not, but I've been filling post-its, emails, notebooks, word files, pen drives, floppy drives, spare napkins, etc with ideas for years and I decided a few months ago its nigh time to dig in my heels, get some scripts written, and get my creations out in the world.
I have a few projects that are ready to start scripting, as in I have characters, plotlines, etc, but just need to translate to script. Any artists interested in working with me on any of them? The goal is to first get a submission package together to submit to the bigger indies and see where it goes from there. If we're gung-ho and want to go ahead and push forward while we wait for responses or get more ready in case we decide to go with a place that will only agree when they see the finished product (between an issue and a story arc) or whatever. Keeping that in mind, there is no money in this until (I'm too optimistic to say unless) the book is published, a company agrees to pay per page rates, etc. If you're concerned about creative rights and such, I would want to split the “creator” profits 50/50 with the artist (that would be any money that is provided outside of per-page rates for the book) since I know it takes a heck of a lot longer to pencil a page versus script a page. As far as the overall rights to the property, that would depend on the artist's input to the overall product. If I write the story-line, characters, scripts, etc, and the artist is basically a “gun for hire” then I would want to retain 100% of the rights to the property. Input equals ownership, basically… Questioning plot decisions, pushing your beliefs on things, etc can help to push some of the creative rights your way. Of course I'm getting ahead of myself, but hey, I'm determined to make something happen and confident of my abilities, so why the heck not?!?!?!
Below are a few of the ideas I'm really ready to get going on. You will notice these are 30k ft level descriptions. Because I'm one of those odd creative types, I don't share ANYTHING without something invested from the artist (nothing vested, nothing gained). If you are interested in learning more, you will have to contact me via email and we can discuss further. If I can tell you're able and serious, I would discuss some of the projects a bit more.
PROJECTS:
1. Cime/Noir/Detective story with a hint of something beyond the ordinary. This is the project I have an artist already for and I've just started writing the script for the 5th issue. No, I'm not looking for an artist on this one; I just wanted to give people an idea of what I'm doing.
2. Horror Mini-Series. This one is inspired by the plethora of stupid horror movies that have been permeating the big screen for the last ten years or so mixed with my own brand of character development. To give you an idea of how odd my inspirations are the storyline came to me as a cross between a dream from a handful of weeks ago and a picture I took months ago.
3. Technology / Paranormal / Mysticism Series. Here's another one with a twist… I had this idea months ago of an ongoing war between good and evil in modern times. Straightforward enough, right? Well, a couple of weekends ago I found a notebook I had totally forgotten about brimming with information on a single creation from about 15 years ago. The end result is something I'm very jazzed about.
4. Horror / Suspense / Mystery / Supernatural ongoing. I had this idea a couple of years ago involving a character and the search for answers to some questions about his history. Basically he's searching for someone while being searched for himself.
5. Fantasy ongoing. A different take on destiny based on a novel I've been working on (set it down when the comic bug set in with a vengeance). A handful of characters, races, creatures, gods, magic, and mayhem.
6. Others… always! Once I find my notebooks with my source material, I'll be at it with some of those…
Ok, I've written a novel on this posting, so let me wrap it up… I'm looking for different styles of art, potentially, for each of the above ideas. If I end up finding more than one artist, great, I can handle that because it's almost like I just need to hit the print button on my brain to get some of the scripts out. Depending on what I'm working on I write anywhere from 6-10 pages per day and that's pretty wordy, too (if this posting didn't give you an impression, I'm wordy and I like it).
Artists, you don't have to be published, but you have to be confident in your work and, well, you've got to be good at what you do… I'm not saying you've got to be a specific style, but I've got to “feel” how it's going to work or, frankly, it won't. I'm not shooting for the minor leagues here (as in indies I have never seen something published by them in a comic book store), I'm striving for something bigger and with the right team, it will happen.
Thanks for reading my opus and I look forward to hearing from some pencil maniacs out there!
Erik
Oceanside, CA
TheLastBard@yahoo.com