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Jason Copland
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Re:Caleb Monroe's MAKING GOOD
Posted: 2006/12/12 16:24
What would you say is the #1 mistake you see aspiring comic creators making?
I’m not sure if it’s a mistake or not; but I see so many creators wanting to draw and write stories about characters who have already been established years ago by a different creator. I wish more creators were hell bent on writing their OWN stories and drawing their OWN characters. If that happened, I believe we’d enjoy a greater variety in stories and art styles, we’d have multiple genres to choose from and, more importantly, we’d see a boost in comic book readership.
I'm of the same mind on this one. I don't have any overpowering affection for the characters I grew up on. I think the best works are the ones that have a beginning, middle and end. Superhero comics just go on and on and on....
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Caleb Monroe
Posts: 141
Karma: 4
Journalista Bonanza!
Posted: 2006/12/13 09:09
This week's column is mentioned in today's Journalista blog.
Also referenced (in fact, the post's title comes from it) is the Meltblog (my day job).
And finally, it includes an image from and link to Ethan Persoff's "A Dog and His Elephant," an excerpt of which appears in the upcoming Blurred Vision 2 anthology alongside "Paper Cuts" by myself and Noel Tuazon.
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Drew Melbourne
Posts: 23
Karma: 3
Re:Caleb Monroe's MAKING GOOD
Posted: 2006/12/14 08:05
Jason Copland wrote: I'm of the same mind on this one. I don't have any overpowering affection for the characters I grew up on. I think the best works are the ones that have a beginning, middle and end. Superhero comics just go on and on and on....
There's nothing wrong with ongoing stories. Some of my favorite works of fiction (both from comics and television) were presented in an ongoing format. But there are two obvious problems:
(1) If you don't have a natural affinity for Character X, you're clearly not going to have an affinity for writing the 2000th story of Character X.
(2) There's no particular reason, outside of market forces, that "ongoing stories" should be so closely associated with superhero comics. If the world were fair and equitable, you should have the oppurtunity to have no interest in telling ongoing crime, hospital and mismatched roommate stories too!
Of course, ultimately, you'd *probably* hit on some genre or some specific concept that you did have enough passion for to sustain some ongoing project. But given the market and given the other, potentially better uses for your time, that's probably not a path worth exploring.
For those keeping track at home, yes, that's specifically the thought process that led me to adding "self-contained" as one of the four pillars of the Melbournesque.
(I apologize to anyone who didn't read my "Melbournesque" column and now thinks I'm weird and/or a jackass. I also apologize to Caleb for plugging my column in his thread.)
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Caleb Monroe
Posts: 141
Karma: 4
Re:Caleb Monroe's MAKING GOOD
Posted: 2006/12/14 12:28
Plug away, Drew. And I pretty much agree on all points. "self-contained" is also a "Calebesque" characteristic.
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