I think Unwanted Children just became much bigger than I ever intended for it to be:
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Something to Show
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Aaand, I'm spent
I wasn't going to update today, but then I just got done saying this will be a weekly blog, so I might as well try to stick to my word. Nothing to really update on. I'm sick and Mike is hard at work on pages for Unwanted Children and several other projects he needs to attend to. He has his stylus, so he better be doing something.
I may start work on some more writing. We'll see.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Back on Track
It's Wednesday and here is an update, even though I missed last Wednesday. Sorry, there was nothing to really say last week.
Anyways, Mike received his new stylus in the mail the other day and is hard at work on the comic pages. I should have some pictures to show by next week. We talked a little on the phone last night about certain elements of the pages. Things should move along smoothly now.
Until next week.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Revisions, Rewrites, and an Update
Okay, two things to talk about today. First, this blog will be regularly updated once a week. Wednesdays, to be exact. I had seven posts in September because the blog was new and I had a few months of work I wanted to share with everyone. Now that I have everyone caught up, I figure the blog will be best with weekly updates. I get a weekly update about the progress of things from Mike, so I should have no problem handling weekly updates on here.
Secondly, I've been doing some rewrites with the scripts of the first three issues. Mike and I had a breakthrough with some great ideas the other day and this called for me to rewrite the scripts. Plus, I wasn't happy with the look or feel of certain scenes, so I really wanted to change those. I think the revised scripts are much better. Issue one isn't too different. Issue two has a lot of new dialogue and the sequence of events are completely different now. Issue three is nearly unrecognizable to its original incarnation.
The main thing I did was changed the initial setting of the story from Los Angeles (which I live close to) to San Francisco (which I have a better knowledge of for some reason). San Francisco really fits the mood of the story.
Well, that's it for today. Until next week when Mike should have his stylus' and perhaps a new page for me to show all of you.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Page Test
His stylus may be broken, but Mike called me last night and demanded that I hop online to see what he had to show me. Here is a page test of one of the 6 pages we will be putting in our submission package:
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Style-less
I think I'm doomed to never see this comic come to fruition. Mike's stylus for his wacom tablet broke. He had to order a new one. He actually ordered two, because he wanted a fancy one, as well as a regular one. Now we have to wait for the stylus' to be delivered. I guess he can still do the pencil work, but this puts a small delay in the production of the first issue. More importantly, it puts a delay in the 6 pages we want to put into the submission package.
Anyways, enjoy some art samples he sent me before the stylus broke. They're just tests for the style of the comic:
This was just shown to me as a comparison to the following:
Rougher details. Not as smooth as the previous image. So, we're getting somewhere, at least.
Just got off the phone with Mike, in fact, and he informs me that he has been working on the pencil work and is just making them as perfect as he can before he sends them my way. So we'll probably have another update soon enough.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
New Artist Onboard
Allow me to fill you in on the current going-ons with the behind-the-scenes of Unwanted Children. There is a new artist working on it.
It's kind of a long story, so I'll just give you the CliffsNotes. When I first started working on this story, I asked my friend of 12 years, Mike, to be the illustrator for the comic. He's graduated with a BFA in Traditional Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Naturally, he would be my first choice. Unfortunately, he initially asked for 30 dollars per page. I didn't think that was too fair of him and decided to find another artist. I've already gone through the steps I took to find another artist, so I'll bypass those details to ease your mind.
The artist I had was great. His name was Richard. I liked his art, he was a nice guy, and he was very interested in the story. The problem was, he didn't seem too committed to the project. I didn't give him any deadlines, but he was kind of lax with showing me any progress. I understood for the most part, because this was a non-paying job and all I offered was exposure if the comic ever got picked up. Well, after my adventure at SDCC and receiving the business card of a publisher, I didn't want to wait too long before I sent off the submission package(we decided not to e-mail the submission package we already had because it only had two pages of art and we thought we should show more). By the time I sent Richard a message asking for an update, it had been two weeks since I had heard from him and it took him another five days to reply.
He was out of town working on a big project that would earn him some cash. Like I said, I'm understanding to paying gigs taking priority, however, he also told me that he wouldn't be able to work on Unwanted Children for most of September. I'll admit, I could have handled things a little more professionally, but I didn't want a whole month to go by where I didn't see any progress on the project. I didn't want the publisher to receive an e-mail from me, eventually, and wonder who the hell I am or think that I took too long to send him something.
Now I have a new artist (I'm leaving out the details of what transpired because they're not necessary). Ironically enough, it's the original artist I wanted on the project. My friend, Michael. He's already shown me some of his concept work and understands that I want to get a submission package to the publisher at Archaia Studio's as soon as possible, so he is bypassing concept work on the main five characters for now in order to work on six pages from the first issue. These six pages will go into the submission package as a way to show that Mike is a capable artist and that we're both able to tell a story in the comic book format.
Here is a preview of Mikes work:
This was the first image Mike sent me. Just a series of poses for Zachary (the protagonist of the story). He asked me which one I wanted him to work on for the initial concept. You can see which one I chose in the following image.
I love the style he's using.
This is the main character, Zachary. It's not the final design for him, but we're going for kind of a punk look. I've already e-mailed Mike my critique on this image and he'll be making the necessary adjustments.
Yes it's in grayscale. I'll elaborate on that in the future.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Synopsis
This is the synopsis for Unwanted Children:
Zachary Weston hasn't led the most functional of lives. He's bounced from foster home to foster home, eventually landing himself in juvenile hall, never achieving the feeling of normality or what it's like to be cared for. Now, on the day of his release from the detention center, Zachary's life is turned upside down.
His prayers of redemption are answered when he is visited by an angel of the Lord, who brings a message and task for the eighteen year old criminal. Zachary is charged with the responsibility of building an army and leading an all out attack against the evils in the world.
After learning that there may be more to his mission than presented, how does Zachary choose the right path? In this morally bankrupt world where the lines of good and evil aren't evenly drawn, black and white are more shades of gray, and nothing is as it seems, can Zachary find his path to atonement?
SDCC: More Business than Pleasure
July 23rd, 2009. An occasion I had been waiting for all year. This was my first time attending the San Diego Convention where my main goal was for business reasons. Sure, I intended to enjoy myself, get autographs, and learn about future storylines from the comics, but that wasn't the only reason I was attending this year. I attended with the intention of pitching my comic book idea and pitch I did. Right into the strike zone... not sure if that's a positive term or negative.
The night before I struggled to get numerous copies printed of the full synopsis for the story (five pages long), the character guide, the 23 paged script for the first issue, and 2 pages drawn of the first issue. I was online all day with the artist, awaiting his e-mails of the pages. We were supposed to have 3 pages of art, but time didn't allow for it. After I printed out one copy of each of these (around 8pm) I went to the nearest Staples print center and made dozens of copies. That's 31 pages copied and printed. I made about 7 packets. That's 217 pages. Actually, that night I hadn't typed up the character guide yet, but since we had such little amount of art, Richard (the artist) and I decided to add in some pages of his art from a comic he was working on his own, just to show that he is capable of drawing a comic. I was at Staples for roughly 45 minutes. When I got home, I began typing up the character guide. I only needed to write about 5 characters; the five main characters throughout the series. I wrote one paragraph per character and it came out to one page perfectly. This didn't take long, but at the time I was still waiting for Richard to finish a third page of art. Well, he never finished it. Not a big deal.
The next morning I woke up around 6, got the lady friend awake and we began getting ourselves ready for the trek down to San Diego. First, however, we need to make a pit stop to the nearest Kinkos, where I printed out several copies of the Character Guide. In the parking lot, I organized the packets, taking out the pages of Richards art from the other comic because I felt it was too confusing to explain why it was in there, and bound them together with large paperclips. I threw the packets into my folder, and we were one our way.
Long story short, we got into the convention center and I instantly began searching for people interested in a great story. My first venture was to the Archaia Studio Press booth. I was directed to the publisher himself. I had to wait a bit as someone else was speaking to him. But, once I was able to speak to him, I was able to give him my full pitch. I was a bit nervous, but I think it went well. He did, afterall, give me his business card and asked me to e-mail him directly with the packet I gave him in pdf format. This was really good. The actual publisher gave me his card and told me to e-mail him directly? I don't have to go through a submissions editor? Awesome.
After my moment of success, I moved to the booth across from Archaia. It was Boom! Studios. They're much more known than Archaia, but I figured "what the hell". Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to anyone there. I asked one of the creators if there was someone I could talk to, but he said they weren't around and that they do have a submissions pile. So, I watched him place my packet in the submission pile and that was that. Not as good as last time, but it'll have to do.
I wandered around a bit, just looking at some of the booth's, not looking for anyone in particular. Then I came across Oni Press. They were on my list of publishers, so I made my way to them. To my surprise, I was standing in front of the display for Greg Rucka's Queen & Country. This had to be a good sign. I was able to talk to their submissions editor for a bit, where she proceeded to tell me that they don't usually look at submissions at the conventions, especially since they just had a contest for artists on their website. I had to inform her that I'm not an artist, that I'm a writer, and that I was pitching an entire project, not just wanting to be hired. She took the packet and I explained the premise to her for a little bit. She told me that it may take her about 8 weeks to get around to it, but that she would for sure read it. I thanked her for her time and that was that. Not much else I could do without becoming a desperate, demanding fan/wannabe.
After another [smaller] company turned me down, saying that they only take projects from established creators, I was pretty much done with pitching. There was SLG Publishing, but I opted out of talking to them. Don't ask me why, I can't remember.
After I was done with the business portion on SDCC, I moved on to the fun part. I bought lots of stuff and attended lots of panels.
The night before I struggled to get numerous copies printed of the full synopsis for the story (five pages long), the character guide, the 23 paged script for the first issue, and 2 pages drawn of the first issue. I was online all day with the artist, awaiting his e-mails of the pages. We were supposed to have 3 pages of art, but time didn't allow for it. After I printed out one copy of each of these (around 8pm) I went to the nearest Staples print center and made dozens of copies. That's 31 pages copied and printed. I made about 7 packets. That's 217 pages. Actually, that night I hadn't typed up the character guide yet, but since we had such little amount of art, Richard (the artist) and I decided to add in some pages of his art from a comic he was working on his own, just to show that he is capable of drawing a comic. I was at Staples for roughly 45 minutes. When I got home, I began typing up the character guide. I only needed to write about 5 characters; the five main characters throughout the series. I wrote one paragraph per character and it came out to one page perfectly. This didn't take long, but at the time I was still waiting for Richard to finish a third page of art. Well, he never finished it. Not a big deal.
The next morning I woke up around 6, got the lady friend awake and we began getting ourselves ready for the trek down to San Diego. First, however, we need to make a pit stop to the nearest Kinkos, where I printed out several copies of the Character Guide. In the parking lot, I organized the packets, taking out the pages of Richards art from the other comic because I felt it was too confusing to explain why it was in there, and bound them together with large paperclips. I threw the packets into my folder, and we were one our way.
Long story short, we got into the convention center and I instantly began searching for people interested in a great story. My first venture was to the Archaia Studio Press booth. I was directed to the publisher himself. I had to wait a bit as someone else was speaking to him. But, once I was able to speak to him, I was able to give him my full pitch. I was a bit nervous, but I think it went well. He did, afterall, give me his business card and asked me to e-mail him directly with the packet I gave him in pdf format. This was really good. The actual publisher gave me his card and told me to e-mail him directly? I don't have to go through a submissions editor? Awesome.
After my moment of success, I moved to the booth across from Archaia. It was Boom! Studios. They're much more known than Archaia, but I figured "what the hell". Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to anyone there. I asked one of the creators if there was someone I could talk to, but he said they weren't around and that they do have a submissions pile. So, I watched him place my packet in the submission pile and that was that. Not as good as last time, but it'll have to do.
I wandered around a bit, just looking at some of the booth's, not looking for anyone in particular. Then I came across Oni Press. They were on my list of publishers, so I made my way to them. To my surprise, I was standing in front of the display for Greg Rucka's Queen & Country. This had to be a good sign. I was able to talk to their submissions editor for a bit, where she proceeded to tell me that they don't usually look at submissions at the conventions, especially since they just had a contest for artists on their website. I had to inform her that I'm not an artist, that I'm a writer, and that I was pitching an entire project, not just wanting to be hired. She took the packet and I explained the premise to her for a little bit. She told me that it may take her about 8 weeks to get around to it, but that she would for sure read it. I thanked her for her time and that was that. Not much else I could do without becoming a desperate, demanding fan/wannabe.
After another [smaller] company turned me down, saying that they only take projects from established creators, I was pretty much done with pitching. There was SLG Publishing, but I opted out of talking to them. Don't ask me why, I can't remember.
After I was done with the business portion on SDCC, I moved on to the fun part. I bought lots of stuff and attended lots of panels.
Production
This particular entry is a recount of the process I have taken to get where I'm at now with the project. Keep in mind that I had written this a few months ago, before finding this site and deciding to post it here.
The Beginning
I formulated the idea of the story in December of 2006 in the form of a brief note to remind myself. Unfortunately, I didn't start fleshing out the idea until 2007/2008. When I finally got around to working on the story, I began drawing up some outlines of the way the story would work. I organized it to work as a continuous ongoing series, wrote down the themes and came up with characters. Not only did I come up with character names, but I also came up with the way they look, act, feel, and carry themselves. I then decided how long each issue would be and how many issues would be in the first arc. Each issue, so far, will be 22 pages and the first arc is 7 issues long.
To this day, I continue plotting new story arcs for the series to undertake. It has grown to be much more than I ever anticipated.
The Writing
So, after I got everything organized and in place like a chess game, I began writing the first issue. However, the way my mind works is both a blessing and a curse because even as I try to focus on one issue, I think ahead and plan for other things. While writing the first issue I thought of numerous story arcs for the future. I even know how the entire series is going to end, if and when it comes to that. I came up with supporting characters and interesting plot twists that I think will keep the audience entranced.
I eventually finished the first issue and with my adrenaline rushing from that, I instantly moved onto the second issue and then the third. However, with each issue being 22 pages long, I was only on page 19 for issue 3 for some time. I don't know what it was, but issue 3 had been the hardest one to finish because of the transition that takes place. But, I finished it. I want to start on issue 4, but I think my efforts could be put to better use elsewhere, for the time being.
The Hunt
This was the longest and most time consuming task, yet. After I finished 2 1/2 issues, the logical idea was to find an artist. A comic can only be brought to life with pictures, otherwise the words are meaningless. One friend had directed me towards a site of artists looking for jobs and even non-paying jobs that promise to eventually see some financial gain. So, I posted a want-ad, giving a few details as to what the comic is about and the style I want for the comic and any other little details that an artist may need.
I had a few nibbles on the ad, receiving a few e-mails from people initially interested, but every time I sent them a small scene to draw (as a way to get a sample of their work in a comic book format) they would never reply and I'd be back at square 1. I even resorted to making some inquiries from a few artists on a smaller website. That didn't pan out so well. So, I moved onto my alternate plan for finding an artist. It's a good thing I have so many friends that are studying traditional art, and that was my Plan B.
Some of them don't really draw the style I was looking for in my story, except one friend. This happens to also be the friend that graduated from art school and the friend that I had started bouncing ideas off of with the story arcs and character designs. He was very helpful, to a point. Originally, he offered to do the comic book for 30 bucks a page. That is 660 bucks an issue. I'm not getting paid for this. I don't even have a job right now (because I'm a bum), so I declined his offer. I didn't think it was too fair.
Well, with some arm twisting and a very convincing plea, he agreed to do it for free. Unfortunately, I never saw anything done with it. Every time we'd talk, I'd ask how the comics coming and he would have nothing to show, claiming he's been lazy or has had more important things to take care of. This went on for a few months until I began my search, again, for another artist. I didn't inform my friend at first because I wanted to wait until I certainly found someone.
I re-posted a want ad on the artist website and it took 65 views of my ad before I finally received an e-mail. I replied, he replied. Things started looking good. We exchanged a few more e-mails to get to know one another. Now it started to look great. Eventually I sent him the first issue and the synopsis. He has already began some rough conceptual art for the comic.
The Update
So, now I have an artist. A dedicated artist that I talk to on a regular basis who shows some real promise. I informed my other friend (the original artist) that he is off the project and he didn't mind too much. There were no hard feelings, which I'm glad, and he is curious to see how the comic goes and he wishes me the best of luck. He hopes that if the comic gets picked up that he can guest draw an issue in the future or something. I told him we'll see.
I've sent the current artist a little contract that ensures he can't steal any of my ideas (you can never be too careful). I have many rough drafts of character designs in my possession as well as the first two pages of the first issue. Rough drafts, but I have them. He is currently working on the finished versions of the pages and we hope to have the first issue done with before the end of the year.
My next post will be about my adventure at the San Diego Comic Con and how my pitching this project to publishers went.
The Beginning
I formulated the idea of the story in December of 2006 in the form of a brief note to remind myself. Unfortunately, I didn't start fleshing out the idea until 2007/2008. When I finally got around to working on the story, I began drawing up some outlines of the way the story would work. I organized it to work as a continuous ongoing series, wrote down the themes and came up with characters. Not only did I come up with character names, but I also came up with the way they look, act, feel, and carry themselves. I then decided how long each issue would be and how many issues would be in the first arc. Each issue, so far, will be 22 pages and the first arc is 7 issues long.
To this day, I continue plotting new story arcs for the series to undertake. It has grown to be much more than I ever anticipated.
The Writing
So, after I got everything organized and in place like a chess game, I began writing the first issue. However, the way my mind works is both a blessing and a curse because even as I try to focus on one issue, I think ahead and plan for other things. While writing the first issue I thought of numerous story arcs for the future. I even know how the entire series is going to end, if and when it comes to that. I came up with supporting characters and interesting plot twists that I think will keep the audience entranced.
I eventually finished the first issue and with my adrenaline rushing from that, I instantly moved onto the second issue and then the third. However, with each issue being 22 pages long, I was only on page 19 for issue 3 for some time. I don't know what it was, but issue 3 had been the hardest one to finish because of the transition that takes place. But, I finished it. I want to start on issue 4, but I think my efforts could be put to better use elsewhere, for the time being.
The Hunt
This was the longest and most time consuming task, yet. After I finished 2 1/2 issues, the logical idea was to find an artist. A comic can only be brought to life with pictures, otherwise the words are meaningless. One friend had directed me towards a site of artists looking for jobs and even non-paying jobs that promise to eventually see some financial gain. So, I posted a want-ad, giving a few details as to what the comic is about and the style I want for the comic and any other little details that an artist may need.
I had a few nibbles on the ad, receiving a few e-mails from people initially interested, but every time I sent them a small scene to draw (as a way to get a sample of their work in a comic book format) they would never reply and I'd be back at square 1. I even resorted to making some inquiries from a few artists on a smaller website. That didn't pan out so well. So, I moved onto my alternate plan for finding an artist. It's a good thing I have so many friends that are studying traditional art, and that was my Plan B.
Some of them don't really draw the style I was looking for in my story, except one friend. This happens to also be the friend that graduated from art school and the friend that I had started bouncing ideas off of with the story arcs and character designs. He was very helpful, to a point. Originally, he offered to do the comic book for 30 bucks a page. That is 660 bucks an issue. I'm not getting paid for this. I don't even have a job right now (because I'm a bum), so I declined his offer. I didn't think it was too fair.
Well, with some arm twisting and a very convincing plea, he agreed to do it for free. Unfortunately, I never saw anything done with it. Every time we'd talk, I'd ask how the comics coming and he would have nothing to show, claiming he's been lazy or has had more important things to take care of. This went on for a few months until I began my search, again, for another artist. I didn't inform my friend at first because I wanted to wait until I certainly found someone.
I re-posted a want ad on the artist website and it took 65 views of my ad before I finally received an e-mail. I replied, he replied. Things started looking good. We exchanged a few more e-mails to get to know one another. Now it started to look great. Eventually I sent him the first issue and the synopsis. He has already began some rough conceptual art for the comic.
The Update
So, now I have an artist. A dedicated artist that I talk to on a regular basis who shows some real promise. I informed my other friend (the original artist) that he is off the project and he didn't mind too much. There were no hard feelings, which I'm glad, and he is curious to see how the comic goes and he wishes me the best of luck. He hopes that if the comic gets picked up that he can guest draw an issue in the future or something. I told him we'll see.
I've sent the current artist a little contract that ensures he can't steal any of my ideas (you can never be too careful). I have many rough drafts of character designs in my possession as well as the first two pages of the first issue. Rough drafts, but I have them. He is currently working on the finished versions of the pages and we hope to have the first issue done with before the end of the year.
My next post will be about my adventure at the San Diego Comic Con and how my pitching this project to publishers went.
Introduction
Hello, my name is Brad. I am an aspiring writer that has been diligently working on a particular story for the past year and a half. I hope to transform this story into the form of a comic book that will be on the shelves for many readers. The story is titled, Unwanted Children.
I will be using this blog in an attempt to keep a record of the steps I have taken to get the story published. At this point in time, I and the artist attached, Michael, are at work putting together a submission package to e-mail to a publisher that I met at the San Diego Comic Convention.
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