I'm quite possibly insane.

[bladespark]

No, screw that. I'm definitely insane! But hey, nothing wrong with that, right?

Anyhow... one positive result of all this comic drama is that I finally went and read EGS. Just finished the archives today, in fact. And I really enjoyed it, somewhat to my surprise. Knowing the Bunnies, and knowing the comic's reputation, I actually expected it to be somewhat more... crude I guess? I'm not sure I can say I expected it to be more perverted, it is perverted, but not quite in the way I expected. But the point is, that I liked it a lot.

And a corrolary point to that is, I liked it a lot, and it's the kind of art level I personally could draw. I could even, on a good day, maybe do a little better. Maybe, I not sure. That's a pretty rare thing for me. Most of the comics I read are better drawn than I could manage, though it ranges from "I could almost do that if I really worked at it for a while" (Schlock or CRFH) to "ha, not in a million years" (Dan and Mab, Girl Genius.)

And that thought got me thinking again about comicking. Now I have tried this before, and I know several things. One is that I can't comic worth beans by myself. Another is that I don't work very well under tons of pressure, but I also don't work when there's no pressure at all, it's got to be just the right combination. (This is part of why collaboration works. I have a person right there, not just "the fans" who I will let down if I don't do my part, so there's a little pressure, but not too much.) My bit in EOU turned into a fiasco because of going from "okay, there's a lot of pressure, but I can handle this" to "cartoon 16 ton weight just fell directly on my head." But if there hadn't been that miscommunication, if things had gone otherwise... I was really enjoying it! It was fun! A little stressful, but fun! If I could do that about once every other week, say... or once a week, with less work...

So that spawned a thought. Working well with others, doing a little less work, loving comics... I want to collaborate! I think my personal ideal would be three people. One for story and layout design, the same kind of thing Low has been doing with the crossover. Then one for linework and inking. And one for color, effects and text. Though maybe I could do it with two, if we did a black and white comic. Anyhow, I could do any of these parts, though I'd probably be best at the linework, it'd depend on the skill of the others involved. And of course they'd have to be the right people. People I could get along with. People who could come up with ideas I'd like. People good at communicating clearly. People capable of putting up with me! (Goes without saying, probably.)

I dunno... finding people who can draw and write and put up with me who also have time and motivation to do a weekly comic is probably asking a bit much. But then on the other hand, I know a lot of people who draw or write.

So I guess I'm just throwing this out there. Mostly as idle musings, about what would be nice in an ideal world. But if somebody wants to actually take me up on it, hey, I'm game! I've done it before. We got three chapters out of Golden Gate, and updated twice a week without fail for a while before my brother bailed out on me. I'd happily have kept going. I like comicking, and I like doing collaborative work. And I'm insane, as you may have noticed.

Comments

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

Wow! That sounds like the exact kind of thing I'd love to do!
I've been wanting to collaborate on someting for a while, because I find that when I'm working alone I lose interest quite easily. There's nothing like being a single parent to a big idea, amirite?
I was thinking of children's books, but a comic would be cool too.
I can't commit to anything now, because I'm in grade 12 and final exams are soon! D: but I would love to do something with you! I'm a very mellow person, and though I have opinions, I usually feel no need to argue them, and I'm not close minded to others' views, so I'm certain we'd never argue...
I can be a bit of a procrastinator, but doing a one-strip-a-week comic is no problem.
I guess if you're still wanting to do his in the summer, I'd be happy to join if you'd want me. (if you don't I wouldn't mind either! everyone has their reasons. ^-^)
I don't know wat job I'd want, though... I'm terrible at buildings, not TOO bad at proportions, but I only like to draw anthro or quads now (no people!). I don't know about coloring, either. I do all my lineart and coloring in Flash, and my details in Photoshop. That's the only way I know how. I might be able to tackle storyline and layout, but I'm not too confident... hmm, I kind of useless, I guess.
We could try it, though. If it didn't work out, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
Are you interested in childrens books? Maybe we could do a couple of them, too! ^-^

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Hey, even if we don't do a comic, doing something would be fun. I've thought about children's books myself sometimes, actually! I was going to do a book for my mother and baby sister once. My mom wrote this kind of cute story about when I was little...

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're interested I'd like to collaborate on a kiddie book (it looks like you've got comic people anyway). If you want we can start brainstorming now, but I won't be able to do any REAL work until school's out. There's no hurry, though. I'm very patient, and I like to have fun. Being rushed or feeling obligated isn't fun ^_~
Anyway, I'd love to get something published, it's been my life-long dream.
It would so cool to do something like this. I had a half-finished story with another friend a while back, but we kind of stopped talking... it just kind of died.
Anyway, if you're ever interested then, just tell me.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd rather take my time and have something that's really nice, rather than something thrown together. There's no rush at all, really.

Got any ideas?

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

I'm not very picky.
I'd like to do something with anthro or quad characters, or maybe more of a mix of both (like Redwall) but if they didn't fit in with a particular story, Id hardly be disappointed.
For storylines... it would be good to figure out what the children like nowadays. I'm not overly fond of bold morals myself. I don't mind teaching kids good life-lessons, but the story feels too agressive to me if it's completely centered on a single moral *coughAesopcough* if that's what you prefer though, I don't mind. I'd be willing to work around anything pretty much. As long as it's good, fun, work.

I don't know what kind of stories you like, but I'm quite the daydreamer myself. Doesn't Peter Pan, whispering of adventures and never-ending childhood, touch your heart? Did you ever want to sail away with pirates, drunken and filthy? Did you dream of flying off to the moon in a small cardboard box, or dancing barefoot with fairies? Meeting lions in your garden?
I had a rich, but lonely childhood, and my stories often reflect this. I think fantasy is my favorite genre, but sci-fi is often a neck-to-neck runner-up. Fantasy is more fitting for children though, I think...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* I don't have a lot of ideas. The story my mom wrote was a moral tale, about saying thank you. (My baby sister never does! She's spoiled!) But she's getting old for those kinds of stories now anyhow.

Me... well, I started reading adult fantasy pretty young. Most of my childhood fantasies were epic. The My Little Ponies and I were going to save the world, that kind of thing.

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read a lot of older books for my age too. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was eight. I didn't completly understand everything, but I still enjoyed that kind of fantsy the most.

Anyway, I guess the first thing to do is determine the age group we'll write for. It may be best to start for pretty young children, that way we can get used to each other's writing styles easily, amirite? It wouldn't be good to rush into an epic novel with no experience between us. XD
I don't really want to start TOO young, because then the stories are so boring (see Spot run...) but it doesn't matter that much.
I guess it also depends how much we want to write. I think it would be great to do a whole series sometime of cute little books. Make a bunch of lovable little characters and their adventures.
I do remember books really well from around the ages of 3 to 5. There were a few that really stand out in my memory still. I think it may have been the pictures more than anything, though. Color is good.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, starting with some characters is good. Animals, and fantasy critters. I used to write a lot of stories with unicorns in them. And griffins. And dragons, of course. Nice dragons though. (I adored the Whisper the Winged unicorn series. Unicorns AND nice dragons!)

I'm trying to think up an idea. I don't have any good stories coming to mind right now. Maybe start with some characters?

[lanabananaotter.livejournal.com]

Sounds good. When I have some spare time I'll sketch out some interesting personalities. I think I'll make little icons of them too. I love to draw my characters, it helps me to envision them in my mind better.
I was looking through your stories a little this morning, and your stuff is pretty cool! I can't wait to do something with you!
Do you want to see some of my work? Just to get a good idea of my writing style... you don't have to read through it all, of course, but I do have something with dragons in it that's fairly recent. I could e-mail it to you or something.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Sure. Email is spark.costumes@gmail.com if you don't have it already.

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

I want to, and I have the third person.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Oooo. You do shiny stuff. Is the third person you speak of somebody I know?

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

You've briefly seen him in IRC.

[endymion-v1.livejournal.com]

A lot easier to find people to work with when you're an artist rather than when you're just a writer, no?

(I've been sitting on an idea for 7 years now due to not being able to draw, heh.)

[jilinn.livejournal.com]

I definately know how it goes with needing just the right amount of pressure. My mate is writing this really cute story that I am wanting to turn into a webcomic, but I have so many ideas and no where to start and no one around to poke me and tell me to get off my butt and do it. Plus, I have NO idea how I want to arrange the panels. I've been playing with ideas, but I am just not sure which one I want to go with.