The Idea
Things have been crazy today and I have a big meeting tomorrow so I'm re-running another of my old 12-Step program columns.
Where ideas come from can be as diverse as the ideas themselves. THE CORP came to me during a conversation with my Grandfather. He had read through my other work (CREEPERS, BLOODLUST, and FORCE) and asked why all of my stories were so violent. Now, by today's standards, my writing is no more violent then the average comic on the market. Then I realized that he wasn't judging them based on today's standards, he was judging them based on the standards when he was a kid. But the standards when he was younger were not realistic. Could Captain America really fight in a war and never take a life? But the idea of Captain America killing someone is so against the character. What if Captain America did kill during the war, but it was covered up. America needed a hero, not a soldier. Could the Captain America mystique be nothing more than the work of editors and spin doctors? I had an idea, to tell the story of a team of superheroes that the world thought were perfect but in reality were just a group of super-soldiers in a war.
That's when I found my "hook". For those of you who don't know what a "hook" is, think of it as the reason why the story is being told. It's one or two sentences that sum up the gist of the story, but it's only a "hook" if it's strong enough to make the reader want more. The "hook" for the Corp is this: A 1940's superhero team vanishes at the end of World War II only to reappear almost 60 years later unchanged. The team has to adapt to a completely new world that idolizes the propaganda-based versions of the heroes that appeared in the history books.
Now that I had my "hook", I needed to figure out how I was going to tell the story. I wanted it to take place in the modern day world, but I wanted to focus not only on the contrasts between society of the past and modern day, but also the contrast of what the characters were thought to be and what they really are.
I couldn't spend a lot of time on developing the characters of the past, so I decided that the characters would be very "stereotypical" in the propaganda versions. In a sense, I am turning the comics of the seventies into the history books of my story. A man dressed in red, white and blue and fighting German soldiers will immediately be associated with Captain America, if I allow that association in the past, that will create the contrast to the real world version that appears in the present. Normally, having a character compared to another is a negative thing, but in this case it helps my story along greatly.
Since the way I am going to tell this story is through contrasts, I decided to take it a step farther. Instead of having one penciler working on this book, I have two. For those of you who are familiar with my previous work will also be familiar with the two artists. Bobby Breed who worked with me on BLOODLUST will be penciling the modern day scenes. Bobby has a very detailed and realistic style. He's great at getting a gritty look to the world. For the "propaganda" like flashes to the past, we will have Brent Evans. Brent worked with me on FORCE. Brent's style is very heroic and dynamic and will look good for the perfect versions of our heroes.
The next thing I need was my connection point. I needed something or someone to be the voice of the reader, someone for the reader to identify with. A character that reacts to the differences between the history versions of the heroes and the real ones. Someone that has a reason to have idolized them all his life and to be crushed by the reality of the situation. I decided that one of the team didn't make it through to the future. One of them died at the same time the team vanished, leaving the mystery of what happened. The grandson of the dead team member would become my connection point. He will have spent his whole life trying to discover what happened to his grandfather and the rest of the team.
The last thing to do is not something you would normally think of, creating limitations for yourself. You must figure out what you want to do with this idea, and what you don't want to do. If this were a standard superhero story, I would add as many plot threads as I could for future stories. I would know from the beginning that the hero must triumph so I can do the next story. But the nature of this idea and the fact I want to tell it through contrasts makes me lean towards a mini-series. Dropping a character into a new environment creates the conflicts needed to tell the story, but the character would eventually adapt to the environment and the conflicts would subside, after awhile this would ruin the style of storytelling. But, by limiting myself to a mini-series, I remove the idea that the hero must triumph. I am now able to do whatever I want with the characters. That means anyone or everyone could die, this adds a nice little edge to the series if the reader knows that nothing is for certain. Spiderman is fun to read, but you know that he won't be killed off any time soon, right?
Now that you have your idea, write it down. Nothing is worse then a great idea that no one ever sees.
To recap the first step:
1) Get the idea - this one is all up to you.
2) Find your hook.
3) Decide on your story telling style.
4) Find your connection point.Set your limitations.
Things have been crazy today and I have a big meeting tomorrow so I'm re-running another of my old 12-Step program columns.
Where ideas come from can be as diverse as the ideas themselves. THE CORP came to me during a conversation with my Grandfather. He had read through my other work (CREEPERS, BLOODLUST, and FORCE) and asked why all of my stories were so violent. Now, by today's standards, my writing is no more violent then the average comic on the market. Then I realized that he wasn't judging them based on today's standards, he was judging them based on the standards when he was a kid. But the standards when he was younger were not realistic. Could Captain America really fight in a war and never take a life? But the idea of Captain America killing someone is so against the character. What if Captain America did kill during the war, but it was covered up. America needed a hero, not a soldier. Could the Captain America mystique be nothing more than the work of editors and spin doctors? I had an idea, to tell the story of a team of superheroes that the world thought were perfect but in reality were just a group of super-soldiers in a war.
That's when I found my "hook". For those of you who don't know what a "hook" is, think of it as the reason why the story is being told. It's one or two sentences that sum up the gist of the story, but it's only a "hook" if it's strong enough to make the reader want more. The "hook" for the Corp is this: A 1940's superhero team vanishes at the end of World War II only to reappear almost 60 years later unchanged. The team has to adapt to a completely new world that idolizes the propaganda-based versions of the heroes that appeared in the history books.
Now that I had my "hook", I needed to figure out how I was going to tell the story. I wanted it to take place in the modern day world, but I wanted to focus not only on the contrasts between society of the past and modern day, but also the contrast of what the characters were thought to be and what they really are.
I couldn't spend a lot of time on developing the characters of the past, so I decided that the characters would be very "stereotypical" in the propaganda versions. In a sense, I am turning the comics of the seventies into the history books of my story. A man dressed in red, white and blue and fighting German soldiers will immediately be associated with Captain America, if I allow that association in the past, that will create the contrast to the real world version that appears in the present. Normally, having a character compared to another is a negative thing, but in this case it helps my story along greatly.
Since the way I am going to tell this story is through contrasts, I decided to take it a step farther. Instead of having one penciler working on this book, I have two. For those of you who are familiar with my previous work will also be familiar with the two artists. Bobby Breed who worked with me on BLOODLUST will be penciling the modern day scenes. Bobby has a very detailed and realistic style. He's great at getting a gritty look to the world. For the "propaganda" like flashes to the past, we will have Brent Evans. Brent worked with me on FORCE. Brent's style is very heroic and dynamic and will look good for the perfect versions of our heroes.
The next thing I need was my connection point. I needed something or someone to be the voice of the reader, someone for the reader to identify with. A character that reacts to the differences between the history versions of the heroes and the real ones. Someone that has a reason to have idolized them all his life and to be crushed by the reality of the situation. I decided that one of the team didn't make it through to the future. One of them died at the same time the team vanished, leaving the mystery of what happened. The grandson of the dead team member would become my connection point. He will have spent his whole life trying to discover what happened to his grandfather and the rest of the team.
The last thing to do is not something you would normally think of, creating limitations for yourself. You must figure out what you want to do with this idea, and what you don't want to do. If this were a standard superhero story, I would add as many plot threads as I could for future stories. I would know from the beginning that the hero must triumph so I can do the next story. But the nature of this idea and the fact I want to tell it through contrasts makes me lean towards a mini-series. Dropping a character into a new environment creates the conflicts needed to tell the story, but the character would eventually adapt to the environment and the conflicts would subside, after awhile this would ruin the style of storytelling. But, by limiting myself to a mini-series, I remove the idea that the hero must triumph. I am now able to do whatever I want with the characters. That means anyone or everyone could die, this adds a nice little edge to the series if the reader knows that nothing is for certain. Spiderman is fun to read, but you know that he won't be killed off any time soon, right?
Now that you have your idea, write it down. Nothing is worse then a great idea that no one ever sees.
To recap the first step:
1) Get the idea - this one is all up to you.
2) Find your hook.
3) Decide on your story telling style.
4) Find your connection point.Set your limitations.
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