TWCL

[microbrien]

Even though I work on multiple projects, I feel like I'm always thinking of new ideas that I just don't have time to start. I imagine most who make or read comics are the same, so post your ideas here.

If someone else posts an idea you think you'd like to read, quote it in your post.

1. The adventures of a scientist and his bunsen burner as they flee Nazis in the early 1940s. The bunsen burner inexplicably accompanies the scientist everywhere. Though he carries on conversations with it (the inanimate object never speaks back), he's never seen carrying it--it just is wherever he is.

2. A small turtle is separated from his family and must take the long way home. Blank inks on white.

3. A disenchanted artist and professor, frsutrated with the artistic community he's a part of comes up with a new schhol of art which he believes is philosophically flawless. He begins promoting his brainchild as the future of fine art, but his collegues and most of his students do not take him seriously, or worse, ostrecize the artist. Though he believes in his work, pursuing this idea and relishing in the newfound passion it has afforded him may cost the artist his reputation, his career, and even his closest friends.

4. A gag-a-day strip written and illustrated by fictional creator, "Bacchus Baker," the school-age son of a high school art teacher and a comic book store owner. Most installments are about being at school, riding the bus, lunch/recess, after school programs, summer vacation, and trying to stay up late.
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I write at cn-comics.com!

[Wild Horse]

microbrien wrote:

2. A small turtle is separated from his family and must take the long way home. Blank inks on white.

Reminds me of this: http://tet.eternaltortoise.com/?cat=4

microbrien wrote:

4. A gag-a-day strip written and illustrated by fictional creator, "Bacchus Baker," the school-age son of a high school art teacher and a comic book store owner. Most installments are about being at school, riding the bus, lunch/recess, after school programs, summer vacation, and trying to stay up late.

So there'd be gag-a-day comics within a long-form comic? I dig that.

What about a comic about radio DJ and every strip we follow the DJ's words from the studio to some random radio to see the effect/interaction/ironic background situation of whatever he's talking about. i.e. if the DJ's filling time by talking about a funny time he was hanging with his friends, we might follow his words to the radio of some hermit who lives by himself.
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[vaslittlecrow]

microbrien wrote:

3. A disenchanted artist and professor, frsutrated with the artistic community he's a part of comes up with a new schhol of art which he believes is philosophically flawless. He begins promoting his brainchild as the future of fine art, but his collegues and most of his students do not take him seriously, or worse, ostrecize the artist. Though he believes in his work, pursuing this idea and relishing in the newfound passion it has afforded him may cost the artist his reputation, his career, and even his closest friends.

I just love how meaty this concept sounds. I don't think that I've seen anything similar either.
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Visit Catnose Comics and Velvet Rasputin to see my comic art and graphic novels.

[Casual Notice]

Quote:

The adventures of a scientist and his bunsen burner as they flee Nazis in the early 1940s.

Most of the Nazi-fleeing in Germany took place prior to 1936. By 1938, most of central and eastern Europe was securely in Nazi hands. The last wave of refugees (those from Poland and France) dried up by the end of 1940.

By the time the US entered the war at the end of 1941, the only refugees still leaving Europe in significant numbers were the Blitz Orphans leaving Great Britain for Canada.
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What I lack in sincerity, I make up for in sarcasm.
S*P*Q*R

[Old Herb]

microbrien wrote:

3. A disenchanted artist and professor, frsutrated with the artistic community he's a part of comes up with a new schhol of art which he believes is philosophically flawless. He begins promoting his brainchild as the future of fine art, but his collegues and most of his students do not take him seriously, or worse, ostrecize the artist. Though he believes in his work, pursuing this idea and relishing in the newfound passion it has afforded him may cost the artist his reputation, his career, and even his closest friends.

I enjoy tragic tales, and this setting would be interesting, if executed properly. Focus on character writing instead of changing story arcs, character growth as people and so forth. Will the person conform in the end, or fight till the bitter end? And how is he remembered, posthumously? Some artists seem to make it big, after they're dead. Might make for a good bittersweet ending, maybe...

[Kail]

microbrien wrote:

1. The adventures of a scientist and his bunsen burner as they flee Nazis in the early 1940s. The bunsen burner inexplicably accompanies the scientist everywhere. Though he carries on conversations with it (the inanimate object never speaks back), he's never seen carrying it--it just is wherever he is.

This one strikes me as neat, but it would really depend on the writing. I dunno why, but I like the idea of the inanimate dialogue partner (maybe because I spend all day talking to my computer). You'd have to work to find situations that haven't already been covered by other comics, though.

For my own ideas:

1- I've always thought that it was weird the way superheroes typically have backstory that involves how they got their powers, while supervillains have backstory that tells why they turned to crime, as if heroism is the default state of humanity. I've been toying with the idea of doing a comic book from the point of view of a more relatable type of supervillain, the kind of guy who just gets sick of having to put up with shit and uses his superpowers in understandable situations, until things start getting out of control. The kind of guy who sees super heroes as bullies and the government as corrupt assholes and has the power to do something about it. Kind of a "small steps corrupt" kind of story.

2- The idea behind this one is about cryogenics; people who are frozen right after dying in the hopes that someday, they'll be 'cured.' The idea is that a group of these people wake up, and are confined to a "re-education" facility until they catch up on the interceding X years of history and can be re-integrated to society. It would partly be a look at theoretical future tech (what kind of things could we do with VR, with genetic engineering, with AI, with advanced robotics, etc. if we really had a firm mastery of these technologies) and partly a story of the group attempting to figure out what the deal is with the re-education facility itself (is there some sinister purpose behind it etc.).

3- The idea behind this one is that the world is ending, the Sun is dying and the planet is freezing, so the only source of heat is geothermal, and people have to keep digging down deeper as it bleeds off. So the comic would be about these groups of nomads traveling through the caves fighting monsters and each other while knowing that they don't really have much time left even in a best case scenario. There's some death cult running around trying to kill everybody, since it's inevitable that they'll all die anyway, and the point of the story would be the parallel that life is fundamentally about putting off the inevitable.

[vulpeslibertas]

Kail wrote:

3- The idea behind this one is that the world is ending, the Sun is dying and the planet is freezing, so the only source of heat is geothermal, and people have to keep digging down deeper as it bleeds off. So the comic would be about these groups of nomads traveling through the caves fighting monsters and each other while knowing that they don't really have much time left even in a best case scenario. There's some death cult running around trying to kill everybody, since it's inevitable that they'll all die anyway, and the point of the story would be the parallel that life is fundamentally about putting off the inevitable.

I don't think I've ever read a post-apocalyptic anything underground. Well, other than Fallout 3.

I think most stories are good, it's the execution which matters. So it's really all about how you carry it through, not the idea itself.
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[Lavenderbard]

vulpeslibertas wrote:

I think most stories are good, it's the execution which matters. So it's really all about how you carry it through, not the idea itself.

There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.
- Raymond Feist

There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.
- Lawrence Watt-Evans

But if someone has more than one story idea brewing and is having trouble decide which one to work on next -- asking one's friends and/or readers which one they think they would most like to see seems as good a way to choose as any.

Personally, I seem to decide based on what is the most different from what I've done recently. My brain needs variety. I go from a tropical fantasy setting with court intrigue and a mannerly style of writing/plotting, to a standard quest fantasy with people wandering around in a snowy wilderness, to a "science fiction romp" (that's what one of my betareaders called it), with a space station so large it goes all the way around the planet it's orbiting, and etc.

The one I just finished (and am trying to find betareaders for) is set in the early 1900s-ish (not-earth), so it has cars and telephones, but they are relatively new on the scene. My heroine is the only female engineer on a passenger liner that runs on diesel, and my hero is this very exotic looking fellow she helped fish out of the sea. Seems he's got assassins after him.

And Black Flag (also looking for betareaders) is about space pirates.

Currently, I'm writing volume three of my standard fantasy quest epic. (I work on it about every third book.)

Coming up I have this African-ish, nomadic people confronted by invaders from more settled lands, just when they were having a major problem with shape-shifters, and a short-tempered city-bred heroine who was married off to a stranger in order to get her out of her stepmother's house, and is trying to sort out her relationship with her primitive nomadic warrior husband and adapt to a very different lifestyle.

And then there's the story featuring the elderly female squid-like alien who undertakes a quest to discover who destroyed her home and carried off her mate. Said quest is hampered/made-more-fun by her discovering an orphaned clutch of newly hatched babies in the ruins. So she's adventuring with toddler septuplets, or something like-unto.

And, er... the to-write queue on my website is fifteen titles long, and there are about that many more story ideas in my head refusing to go away, even though I haven't added them to the queue yet. So I'd better stop here, or I won't stop at all.
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[vulpeslibertas]

Ah yes, the ever present problem of what to write next. Personally, I don't think I would ask others for help in determining what project to work on. I usually prioritize based on what I feel like.

Although, asking your readers isn't a bad idea. Fans are a great motivation to most writers.
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[Wild Horse]

Kail wrote:

1- I've always thought that it was weird the way superheroes typically have backstory that involves how they got their powers, while supervillains have backstory that tells why they turned to crime, as if heroism is the default state of humanity. I've been toying with the idea of doing a comic book from the point of view of a more relatable type of supervillain, the kind of guy who just gets sick of having to put up with shit and uses his superpowers in understandable situations, until things start getting out of control. The kind of guy who sees super heroes as bullies and the government as corrupt assholes and has the power to do something about it. Kind of a "small steps corrupt" kind of story. 2- The idea behind this one is about cryogenics; people who are frozen right after dying in the hopes that someday, they'll be 'cured.' The idea is that a group of these people wake up, and are confined to a "re-education" facility until they catch up on the interceding X years of history and can be re-integrated to society. It would partly be a look at theoretical future tech (what kind of things could we do with VR, with genetic engineering, with AI, with advanced robotics, etc. if we really had a firm mastery of these technologies) and partly a story of the group attempting to figure out what the deal is with the re-education facility itself (is there some sinister purpose behind it etc.). 3- The idea behind this one is that the world is ending, the Sun is dying and the planet is freezing, so the only source of heat is geothermal, and people have to keep digging down deeper as it bleeds off. So the comic would be about these groups of nomads traveling through the caves fighting monsters and each other while knowing that they don't really have much time left even in a best case scenario. There's some death cult running around trying to kill everybody, since it's inevitable that they'll all die anyway, and the point of the story would be the parallel that life is fundamentally about putting off the inevitable.

These are fantastic. Idea 1 was sort of like Harvey Dent in Dark Knight which was the main reason why I loved that movie so much (sorry, I got Batman on my mind!), but I agree a plausible/relatable super-villain back-story is very rare. And I'd also love to see more about superheroes not being all they're cracked up to be.

But idea 3 is my favourite. I love that strange state of inevitability where noone has any aims or goals any more. I'm picturing an atmosphere where everyone has accepted their fate and are slightly depressed rather than being excessively angry, hopeful or fearful.
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[Caliburn]

1. In a world dominated with superheros with whatever super powers you can imagine, one girl learns she has a few special traits of her own: She can only go outside at night, for the sunlight burns her skin; and animals have a terrible disposition towards her. Thus every night between 12-4am she dons a tube sock with two wholes cut out for her eyes and patrols her local street, keeping it safe from a slew of disgruntled animals with her trusty slingshot and shovel (Eat your hearts out PETA!)

[justender]

Kail wrote:

1- ... The kind of guy who sees super heroes as bullies and the government as corrupt assholes and has the power to do something about it. Kind of a "small steps corrupt" kind of story.

I'd be interested in reading something along these lines.

[Fly By Night]

this is something I'm just starting: two guys and three girls going through high school, figuring out what's fucked up and what isn't. thing is, I'm going into high school next year, so some of the events that happen will actually have happened.