I’ve been reading about the ongoing furor concerning “Fake Nerd Girls.”  I’ve been embarrassed by my fellow nerds many times before, but this…  This is just going too far.  My brethren have plunged head-first into a vat of stupid so deep they’ve lost track of their own asses.

Look, people.  First of all, suppose it were true; suppose being a nerd was suddenly so cool that beautiful girls were putting on glasses and dressing up and pretending to be one of us.  What the fuck would be so terrible about that?  So what if you can’t discuss the secret origins of Wolverine with her, I daresay she has something to offer the community anyway.

But let’s not discount the far more likely possibility that, from time to time, a nerd-girl comes out of puberty and blossoms in her adulthood.  She looks in the mirror one day, and realizes that if she wore nicer clothes and did something with her hair she could be attractive.  It happens.  And because she’s a nerd, she doesn’t put on a mini-dress and head down to the club; she makes a manga costume that displays her as-yet unrevealed assets, and goes to the Con.  Imagine her uncertainty and consternation as she enters the meeting-place of her people and takes off her coat.  Ah, the exhilaration as she is noticed for the first time!  As she is surrounded by flashing cameras and attention, and recognized as a physically desirable woman (in a cool costume)!

And then some ass-hat dismisses her as nothing but a “Fake Nerd Girl,” a mere wannabe-nerd.

We are a community of outcasts.  We’ve all been humiliated, beaten up and excluded because of how we are.  We’ve found some small points of pride, and enough common ground to stand together and call ourselves a sub-culture, diverse though it is.  It’s not a sub-culture that anyone else would envy, believe me.  But it allows us to take a little pride in ourselves and finally belong to something.

Let’s not fuck that up by excluding each other, okay?

-Crylock

-Crylock

So, in an attempt to reduce my own doofosity, I am re-doing the first half-dozen pages of Dei Umbra.  It’s gonna take a little while, during which the story will not progress, and I apologize for that.  I’ll get it over with as quickly as I can.  And the comic will have a shiny new beginning, a much better one than the one it has now.  Keep the faith!  I’ll be back.

A story is an almost magical thing.  We can’t resist a story; when we see even a fragment of one, it draws us in and makes us want to see how it ends.  Stories appeal to us on many levels, and affect us deeply.  That’s why I love using my drawing skills to draw comics.  Pictures combined with a strong story can create a powerful experience for the reader.

But a good story is more than a succession of events, and that’s why we need to plot it out in advance.  The plot has to contain certain elements in a certain order, and if you get it right, your comic will draw the reader in, involve them on an emotional level, and at the end leave them with a feeling of great satisfaction.  That’s the goal we’re shooting for.

Now, this is only a brief overview, and it’s only one guy’s opinion.  Much better writers than I have written big, fat books on what makes a good story.  But these are rules that I’ve found to be the most important, and I think it’s a good place to start.

The beginning:

It needs to capture the reader’s interest immediately.  If your story begins with not much happening, many readers will never get to the part where it starts to get exciting.  Keep the introductions very brief at the beginning, and plunge right into the action, drama, romance, or whatever your comic is about.  Save the character development and details about the world until later; those first few pages are a race to hook the reader’s interest before their attention span runs out.

Getting into trouble:

Unless your comic is a comedic romp or a light-hearted romance, you’re going to need some conflict.  Conflict is the meat of the story, so get your protagonist into trouble as soon as possible.  Create some mystery, and pit him (or her, or them) against someone or something that means him harm.

At the same time, allow your protagonist to start to reveal who he is.  You can show his personality, his motivations and his innate goodness or badness as you go along, largely by how he reacts to the situation he’s in.

More trouble:

Build tension.  Things will need to get worse for your hero.  The more trouble he gets into, the more the reader has to worry about his welfare, the more involved they will be in his story.  There should be bright moments and little victories along the way, and as much happening as possible.  Add twists, romance, big reveals, anything you like, but don’t let up on the danger.  Let the doom clouds gather, and make it look like there’s no way your hero can win.

Climax:

You can have many climaxes during the story, but save the big one for the end.  In the big climax, your protagonist must face whatever is threatening him, be it a supervillain, an evil spirit, a traitorous rumormonger, a secret organization or a schoolyard bully.  They’ve got to have it out somehow, and one way or another, the hero wins, at least to some significant degree.

The return:

This element can be a lot of different things.  The protagonist could return, triumphant, to his home, showing those who doubted him that he’s not a loser after all.  Or he can make up with his girlfriend.  Or go back to his ship and sail away.  Or regain his memories.  Or wake up from his dream.  Or whatever else is appropriate and relevant to your story.  The “return” means that some aspect of the protagonist’s life returns to a state that was referenced near the beginning of the story.  This gives the story a sort of circular feel, and gives the reader a sense of completion and resolution.  Once you’ve done this, the story can end.  Or, you know, set up the sequel, or whatever.

So…

That’s the general shape of a good comic story.  It works in pretty much any kind of genre, be it adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, romance or drama.  You can take any liberties with it that you like, of course, rules are made to be broken.

So, think about what you want to happen in your comic, and try to shape it into a plot.  Write out the plot you come up with in whatever form you like, to the degree of detail you are happy with.  Depending on how you like to work, you can break it down to a page-by-page framework, in which the plot tells you what has to happen on each page you draw; or you can map it out a little more loosely.

For myself, I find that I prefer a loose framework.  I know what has to happen for the story to progress, but I deal with getting there on a page-by-page basis.  I do this because, more often than not, I think of a better way to get there along the way.  I like having that flexibility.

Story Length and Format

A typical manga book has just over 200 pages.  If you want to see your comic printed that way some day, then you’ll want to fit your story into that many pages.  American comics usually have fewer pages than that, but the size varies.  If you just want to do an online comic and forget about ever printing it, you can keep it freeform and pace it however you please.

The Hero’s Journey

A very brilliant guy named Joseph Campbell spent his life studying the mythologies and legends of all the different cultures of the world.  When he compared them, he found some striking similarities between them.  He concluded that it was no coincidence.  Myths and legends are essentially stories, and stories satisfy a deep emotional need in all humans in every culture.  The stories in their mythologies had evolved over hundreds or even thousands of years, passed to each generation by the spoken word, and Dr. Campbell believed that the similarities in them were, in fact, the ultimate distillation of what a story needed to be to fulfill our deepest emotional needs.  George Lucas agreed with him, and used this research when he wrote Star Wars, and we know how that turned out.  Here is a list of these points of similarity, described as steps in the hero’s journey:

1. Birth: Fabulous circumstances surround the conception, birth, and childhood of the hero.

2. Call to Adventure: The hero is called to adventure by some external event or messenger.

3. Helpers/Amulet: During the early stages of the journey, the hero will often receive aid from a protective figure, such as a wizard, an old man, a dwarf, a crone, or a fairy godmother. The helper commonly gives the hero a protective amulet or weapon.

4. Crossing the Threshold: Upon reaching the threshold of adventure, the hero must undergo some ordeal in order to pass from the everyday world into the world of adventure. This trial may be as painless as entering a dark cave or as violent as being swallowed up by a whale. The important feature is the contrast between the familiar world of light and the dark, unknown world of adventure.

5. Tests: The hero travels through the dream-like world of adventure, where he must undergo a series of tests. These trials are often violent encounters with monsters, sorcerers, warriors, or forces of nature. Each successful test further proves the hero’s ability and advances the journey toward its climax.

6. Helpers: The hero is often accompanied on the journey by a helper who assists in the series of tests and generally serves as a loyal companion. Alternately, the hero may encounter a supernatural helper in the world of adventure who fulfills this function.

7. Climax/The Final Battle: This is the critical moment in the hero’s journey in which there is often a final battle with a monster, wizard, or warrior which facilitates the particular resolution of the adventure.

8. Flight: After accomplishing the mission, the hero must return to the threshold of adventure and prepare for a return to the everyday world. If the hero has angered the opposing forces by stealing the elixir or killing a powerful monster, the return may take the form of a hasty flight. If the hero has been given the elixir freely, the flight may be a benign stage of the journey.

9. Return: The hero again crosses the threshold of adventure and returns to the everyday world of daylight. The return usually takes the form of an awakening, rebirth, resurrection, or a simple emergence from a cave or forest. Sometimes the hero is pulled out of the adventure world by a force from the daylight world.

10. Elixer: The object, knowledge, or blessing that the hero acquired during the adventure is now put to use in the everyday world. Often it has a restorative or healing function, but it also serves to define the hero’s role in the society.

11. Home: The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

This information comes from the book “Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell, published in 1949.

Plotting for the Pulps

Here’s a somewhat less high-minded reference that I’ve found useful: The Lester Dent Master Plot.  It’s a guide to writing fiction, written by Lester Dent, a guy who wrote pulp stories back in the 1930′s.  Most of the same principals apply to comics, though the pacing will be different.

There, that ought to get you off the ground.  But don’t let this part intimidate you.  You don’t have to have the plot completely in place before you begin drawing.  You can work it out as you go, to some degree.

Again, if you’re serious about writing comics, I encourage you to do more research.  Find books on the subject and read them.  There are plenty of them out there.

Partnering

Not all artists are good writers, and vice versa.  I’m lumping the two together for the sake of this tutorial series, and there will be some who, like me, will find that they can do both.  But if you are a writer who can’t draw, or an artist who can’t write, the solution is easy:  Network!  Go to a comics networking site and chat with other creators, and find someone to partner with.  Get to know them before you pop the question.  Look at some of their work and see if that’s what you want.  You’ll need someone you can get along with, who has the same goals you do, and the same work ethic and integrity you do.

When you find the right partner, ideally the two of you will encourage each other, feed on each other’s enthusiasm, and push each other to work harder and to achieve excellence.

-Crylock

-Crylock

Anyhow, it’s up and ready to read. I’m gonna try hard to get the next one up on time, which will be this Sunday night. For those folks who found their way here via word search, this blog is actually intended to support the online comics I’m posting on my website. Check it out! You might like it.

In 1933 a newspaper publisher began collecting all the strips of a particular title and re-publishing them together in a book by themselves. Since almost all the comics were humorous in those days, it came to be known as a “Comic Book” or “Funny Book.” They sold well, and soon all the newspaper comics were being reprinted in comic books. This format was especially effective for dramatic, continuing comic stories like Dick Tracy, Captain Easy, Buck Rogers and Tarzan. The popularity of these collections led to comics that were drawn specifically for the comic book format. Then, in 1938, Siegel and Shuster created Superman, the first costumed superhero, and comics as we know them were born!

Superhero comics really took off in the forties, and along with them came some other popular genres, like adventure and romance, and also horror and crime comics. During World War Two, when nearly every able-bodied American man was overseas fighting the Axis and Japan, comic book publishers started putting comic books into the C-rations that were shipped to the troops. Every meal came with a comic book, and the soldiers read them and traded them. When they came back from the war, they continued to buy comics. This is now known as the Golden Age of comics, and during the mid-forties 48% of Americans read comics.

Ah, but then… cue the ominous music… then things went bad. It started when a Catholic Bishop wrote a piece in his church’s newsletter about how awful and unhealthy comic books were. Through the late forties and early fifties others picked up on this theme. The outrage snowballed… In particular, the crime and horror comics, written, drawn and published in New York, depicted horrific scenes of violence that parents in the Midwest had never even imagined. Town meetings led to banning comics from local towns, and local papers ran articles demonizing comics in general.

The outrage went national when Fredric Wertham, a psychologist, wrote a bestselling book called Seduction of the Innocent in 1954. In it he described how images of violence and depravity in comic books were warping children’s minds, and causing them to imitate such acts themselves. He blamed comic books for the dramatic rise in juvenile delinquency that had been plaguing the country since the war. He pointed out all the decapitation, eyeball-stabbing, brain-eating, etcetera, that went on in horror comics, and the murders and flagrant law-breaking that occurred in crime comics. He also took some shots at superhero comics, pointing out that Batman and Robin’s relationship was gay, that Superman was a fascist, and that Wonder Woman was a lesbian who was into bondage.

His “evidence” concerning the effects of comics on children was anecdotal and not supported by any actual evidence. The rise of juvenile delinquency he pointed to was not caused by comics, but by social changes due to the war– dads were gone for years, fighting, and moms started working jobs, leaving kids unsupervised more than ever before. After the war, women continued to hold jobs, something they hadn’t done before, leaving less time for raising their kids, and this was the main cause of delinquency. Children were actually no more inclined toward murder and dismemberment than they had been before comic books, and if Batman and Robin seemed gay, it probably wasn’t intentional. As for Wonder Woman, yeah, Bill Marston, the guy who created, wrote and drew the original Wonder Woman, was totally into bondage, and the comics he did were full of amazons tying each other up and dominating each other. He admitted his fetish in an interview. But Wertham also claimed that Wonder Woman was a lesbian because she was strong and independent, which might have flown in the fifties, but is laughable today.

But despite the book’s bogusness, it had a huge impact. It triggered nationwide hysteria, and demands for censorship. There were congressional investigations into comic books, and a series of senate subcommittee hearings led by anti-comics crusader Estes Kefauver, reminiscent of McCarthy’s HUAC. All over the country, local towns and counties organized huge comic-book burnings, parents threw out their children’s comic collections, and comics were banned in many places.

The comics industry was flattened. Only a couple of publishers survived, and their remaining titles, forbidden to depict violence or use words like “terror” or “zombies” under the new Comics Code Authority censorship, mostly depicted funny animals and romance. “Safe” stories of family life and teenage hijinks, like Archie, Became the norm.

It wasn’t until the sixties that DC and Marvel tentatively began publishing superhero comics again. Superheroes quickly became the most popular comic book genre, and comics rose to become an industry once more, but the stigma of the fifties still tainted comics. They were seen by most Americans as childish and immature, and not real literature, and there were still many parents who forbid their kids to read them.

Comics have undergone several noteworthy breakthroughs since then, gradually finding their place as a literary form unlike any other. Most comics are now aimed at adults, and are always breaking new ground, exploring new subject matter and storytelling techniques. In recent years the movie industry has found comics to be an unmined treasure trove of creativity, and have made a continuing string of blockbuster movies based on comics. But still, the last time the popularity of comics was polled, only 8% of Americans read comics. Measure that against the 48% of the golden age, and you can see that comic publishing in America remains a cottage industry.

In Japan, the Japanese style of comics, called manga, really took off. A huge 95% of Japanese people read comics. In America, translated manga has, over the past decade, become a market of its own, rivaling American comics; perhaps even surpassing them, if the size of their bookshelf at the bookstore is any indication. Many of the themes of manga are similar to those of American comics, but with their own distinctive approach and stylings.
It is possible that manga is the future of comics. Manga stories have a fresh, exciting style, and the pages are less dense, and therefore more approachable. They are less self-involved, self-important and intimidating than modern American superhero comics have become, which makes them easier to get into for the casual reader, or those with a Youtube attention span.

I predict that in the future there will be a hybrid between manga and American comics, a blending between the two. In anticipation of that blending, I’ve done my comic, Dei Umbra, in what I imagine that blending might look like. Maybe I’ll be ahead of my time… or maybe I’m wrong, and my comic will end up being a mere curiosity as the comics genre progresses in another direction entirely. Only time will tell!
-Crylock

But don’t worry. Over the next couple of pages Dave will clear things up. This is a story about alternate realities, the idea that every time a defining event occurs that could have gone either way, it actually goes both ways, creating two diverging realities. That means that when, for instance, someone decided it would be a good idea to drop hydrogen bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they might have decided not to, and reality split into two paths; one in which the bombs are dropped, and another in which they aren’t. Or when, back in 2000, those antique voting machines in Florida didn’t punch the holes in the ballots cleanly, and little bits of paper got stuck in the holes, and since nobody could be trusted to count the ballots by hand without cheating, someone decided to let the supreme court decide who would be president, and we got George W. Bush. At that moment an alternate timeline was created, in which somebody made them count those ballots a fourth time, and Al Gore was elected president. In that reality, America didn’t go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Homeland Security was never created, and the CIA didn’t kidnap hundreds of people they thought might be terrorists and torture them for years without trial. Or yesterday, when you decided to have a bologna sandwich instead of a PB&J… You get the idea. The theory of alternate realities is a working part of Quantum Physics, and one of the greatest gifts to science fiction writers ever.

So anyway, the reality Layne finds himself in was created by such an event, which will be revealed later. And the demons and imps are from yet a third alternate reality, and they aren’t really what they seem…