So, i was looking about in the forums and saw the thread on using the character page as narrative, and i wasn't sure on the forum's etiquette standards, so instead of possibly hijacking the year old thread, i figured i'd just make a new post. I'm terribly sorry if this happens to be in the wrong forum or some such thing.
I do This is:, and for all intents and purposes, it is a set of badly written character pages. For some reason, i tend to think of it as a comic. The problem is that it's just so radically different from other comics, i'm hesitant to call it a comic.
If comics are just sequential art, then yeah it is, its just not linear. (Culling things from the comics wikipedia page) If it's "the printed arrangement of art and balloons in sequence, particularly in comic books." then no. If "...the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea." then maybe. It doesn't have panels, it doesn't have word balloons, it doesn't have a set sequential order (to an extent) - it doesn't even have next and previous buttons! (Most of the time.) It is confusing for me.
The problem is that i don't have a comics background - (actually, i don't much of a background in anything, but that's not the point) so i'm completely clueless as to where to look for my... peers. Every time i try and search out something similar, i tend to get lost. So i'm asking you folks for a little guidance about the format i'm using.
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Re: I'm weird. Is anyone else?
OK, found "This is:"
Now I see more what you are asking. Some quick thoughts on that:
I think what you've got there is almost an the narrative equivalent to when painters, who theretofore used watercolors only as a sketching medium for what they would later paint in oil, began saying "I like this watercolor for what it is: a record of the process of creating; this means to an end can serve as an end itself." You're more interested in the process of creating characters than of actually using them. And I definitely agree that that part of the process of writing can be the most fun and compelling. But I'd ask, is it as fun to read as it is to create? on some levels yes. It's almost like reading a post-card; a slice of something from which I as a reader can get caught up in, because my impulse is to fill in the story itself.
So yes, persue this, and consider whether or not "first thought, best thought" applies here, or whether revision would make these character sketckes tighter and therefore more compelling.
http://www.pear-pear.com
Re: I'm weird. Is anyone else?
Hi CW.
Not sure if I'd classify the series of "How the Dinosaurs Died" as character pages, so I'm wondering if you are referring to something of yours pre-Dinosaurs. Is the comic (or whatever it is) evolving (couldn't resist)?
--question answered. see second post.to address the questions, but not necessarily answer them:
- Is it novel, or has it been done before? (Surely it has, in at least some form.)
Does it matter? The compelling need for novelty or originality as a validator of a creative piece in any genre, i think, is a throwback to Romanticism.- Is it interesting?
It is to me, perhaps not in the way you mean it to be interesting. What interests you about what you're doing, and can you push it further, and ask more questions about form than you can answer?I'd like to see where it goes.
-Peter
www.pear-pear.com
So I had a look at your comic...
And to answer your questions...
Is it novel, or has it been done before? (Surely it has, in at least some form.)
Sort of... it reminds me most of Tim Burton's Oyster Boy which is more poetry-based, but along similar lines.
Is it interesting?
I think so.
Is it worth pursuing?
As an artistic endevour, yes, as a business proposal for raking in loads of cash, probably not... it depends whether you need it as a creative outlet or not.
Ad,
www.flowfieldunity.com