I watched Sin City Saturday night and was blown away. So blown away that I was inspired to go back to a comic book store (I hadn't been to one in about a year) and pick up some comics. Well, other than thumbing through Alex Robinson's new book, Tricked, I didn't see anything that really grabbed me. Not to sound arrogant, but I couldn't find anything that was up my alley, so another form of inspiration struck. I know what I want to do after Post: a graphic novel. What's a graphic novel? Well, here's a definition from Dictionary.com:
A novel whose narrative is related through a combination of text and art, often in comic-strip form.
That's a very accurate description of a graphic novel, but don't think my project is some superhero comic or some gritty noir piece filled with anti-heroes. I enjoy those kinds of comics but I want to write something that I would read and really enjoy. Right now I'm leaning towards writing/drawing several vignettes based on conversations that pit observation versus action and perception versus reality. Yes, this is very vague, but better to start broad than be restricted from the get-go.
If I could list my inspirations/influences, I would have to say the films of Richard Linklater, especially Slacker and Waking Life, are on the top of my list. Like those movies, I want to use dense conversations as a starting point, but write in my own voice. I want to throw in my commentaries on life with work, music and movies with philosophy, sociology and observing too. I want action to be an important part of the presentation, but I want to divert from mainstream conventions of storytelling. There will be plot, but I want to stretch outside of the boundaries they teach you in school.
Part of what I enjoy with writing is the challenge of doing something I've never done before. I've never written a comic, but I think it's better to try than to not try at all. I need to express myself in creative ways and a big part of the enjoyment comes with meeting realistically optimistic goals. The only person that decides on whether to write or not write is the person him/herself, so I have no one (or one thing) else to blame for not doing this.
Now I don't want to sound like this guy and make a big hoopla about plans that appear to be definite only to change them, but with my current mindset, this is what I want to do following Post's completion.
A novel whose narrative is related through a combination of text and art, often in comic-strip form.
That's a very accurate description of a graphic novel, but don't think my project is some superhero comic or some gritty noir piece filled with anti-heroes. I enjoy those kinds of comics but I want to write something that I would read and really enjoy. Right now I'm leaning towards writing/drawing several vignettes based on conversations that pit observation versus action and perception versus reality. Yes, this is very vague, but better to start broad than be restricted from the get-go.
If I could list my inspirations/influences, I would have to say the films of Richard Linklater, especially Slacker and Waking Life, are on the top of my list. Like those movies, I want to use dense conversations as a starting point, but write in my own voice. I want to throw in my commentaries on life with work, music and movies with philosophy, sociology and observing too. I want action to be an important part of the presentation, but I want to divert from mainstream conventions of storytelling. There will be plot, but I want to stretch outside of the boundaries they teach you in school.
Part of what I enjoy with writing is the challenge of doing something I've never done before. I've never written a comic, but I think it's better to try than to not try at all. I need to express myself in creative ways and a big part of the enjoyment comes with meeting realistically optimistic goals. The only person that decides on whether to write or not write is the person him/herself, so I have no one (or one thing) else to blame for not doing this.
Now I don't want to sound like this guy and make a big hoopla about plans that appear to be definite only to change them, but with my current mindset, this is what I want to do following Post's completion.
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