So I have finished page 1 of my first comic book. And, boy, did it take a bit of work! Now that I’ve done one page I am excited to keep going. But I’m also not sure how I should go about it. Realistically, it will probably take me at least 2 weeks to complete each page… maybe even 3 weeks or more depending on how complicated the artwork or story is. So do I want to plow through this comic book as quick as I can or should I alternate and do a few single panels between each page? I’m not sure.
In regards to the comic book, I know I’m probably doing it all wrong. The story is constantly changing—I was even making drastic changes to the dialogue while I was drawing the finished page. It’s just that I’m finding writing a comic book to be such a juggling act between the words and the pictures. As the pictures develop the writing has to adapt… and vice versa. Unfortunately, I don’t feel that writing is my strong suit (which is why I’ve been doing single panel comics). If things start to fall apart I might consider bailing.
I guess I should give some kind of an introduction to my story… In C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the children who are summoned to Narnia to perform some great deed are invariably set up to succeed. Along the way they have the opportunity to make friends, gain skills, grow in character, and ultimately they are better off for their experience. But my idea is to do the opposite. The good people of my wondrous and magical land are… not all that good. In matter of fact they are meant to be quite evil in their own way. Their whole intent in bringing children to their world is put them in situations with such a small chance of survival that they don’t see the point in taking the effort to prepare them for what lies ahead.
Now I’m not sure that my story will turn out the way I intend. As I said before, I don’t feel that confident in my writing and I’m not sure I can keep enough control over the story as I write it to keep true to my original purpose. As I think ahead I already see that not all of the malevolent people of fairyland have the pure evil hearts that I would like them to have for this story. Actually, I think it’s obvious that they actually do have some very good reasons for doing the dastardly things that they do.
If my story should turn out I would like to see how my protagonist reacts to the citizens of fairyland… will he struggle to forgive them? Will it take time? Sadly, as a writer, I’m concerned that the protagonist will empathize with them too strongly early on and I won’t be able to see him wrestle with the issue of unforgiveness like I would like him to.
My Cartoon Sandbox 