The Graphic Novel is a beautiful artform. It combines storytelling with a visual reference for the world of the story. It's a chance to build a universe or explore our own, a low budget animation where the reader's mind provides the voices and inbetweens. It's a way of meeting the reader halfway, providing each reader with their own personal connection.
I want to create such a thing. I'm not personally a visual artist of great talent, but the beauty of the Wolfgang and Sons setup is that I have constant access to a plentiful supply.
If a graphic novel is art and story, and I have an artist, I still need a story. And every story has an opening. A cold open where the reader goes from cover to title to shot one. First splash in the pool. How do we craft such a thing?
I like to start with big picture and narrow down to the individual scenes. If I don't know the universe of the story, how can I know anything about how to introduce it?
In the spirit of crafting a piece of atheist/agnostic mythology, there will be no magic of any kind. In place of magic there is skill and technology. Empires, Armies and Religions are key elements of the world. I've decided on creating a world that mirrors someone's life on 300BCE Roman frontier in modern Spain. In order to build a unique world, we will introduce new creatures/monsters as well as completely crafted Empires and uniforms and flags and fashion.
So how to open a story and convey all that information?
Next time, you cheeky reader.
Posted Friday, Apr 12th 2013 @ 12:44