The Stupid Dreamer, Reckless of the Dawn
Incidentally, the title of today's blog comes from the end credits theme to the anime movie "One Piece: Dead End", which I scored an import of at Wizard World this year. I feel it's a pretty accurate description of myself, as well as One Piece's protagonist, Luffy B. Monkey. On with the show.
Y'know what I love most about making comics? It's the fact that I have an unlimited special effects budget. For example, last night, I had a character blow up. Now, if I was making a movie, even an ultra low budget one, this effect would take a considerable amount of time and effort to pull off. Even if I was doing hand-drawn or computer animation an effect like that would be fairly complex and time consuming (whadda you think Shafe? Exploding CGI human, simple or hard?). In a comic, I can blow up as many people as I want, as many different ways as I want, and it will only take me anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour for zero dollars. Now that is some low budget storytelling.
The key, for me anyway, to creating wierd, crazy stuff in my comic mostly comes from just thinking along the old stream of consciousness. Just like the old mind wander and see what comes out. Then, all you gotta do is be brave enough to put that stuff down on paper. For example, back in the early days of my comics, I had the "serious" Monster/Hero comics (Cactus Joe, Halloween Gang, ect) together, and the Funny Animal comics (Walt & Sped, Iggy Iguana, ect) in another. Then one day I just had this idea, "What if we had Cactus Joe playing Dodgeball with Walt and Sped? That'd be funny." It was like I had been given an epiphany! Immediately, all sorts of new and exciting ideas came to my mind. Unfortunately, then I had the usual negative thoughts, like, "That's stupid. No one's gonna like it if you have your funny animals and your monster heroes running around together." Doubts began to sink in, and I about killed the idea right there. But then I thought, "What Would Jack Kirby Do?" And the answer to that question was, "Kirby would do anything he damn well felt like, no matter how odd or unconventional it was, and he would make it kick so much ass that your jaw would instinctively drop while reading it." Now, I may not have got that second part right, but I went ahead and slapped the "silly" and "serious" aspects of my comic together, and viola! my comic was rejuvanated. So, the next you're working on a creative endevor, and you think to yourself "This idea is too silly or radical or wierd," take a tip from Joseph Morris, Comic Guy and Cultural Guru, and Just Do It. (I'm full of cheap slogans today)
Today's Comic You Cannot Live Without is "Jack Kirby's New Gods". You want insane creativity at its best? Check out this kickin collection from DC. The scene with the giant whale monster is worth the price of admission alone.
Y'know what I love most about making comics? It's the fact that I have an unlimited special effects budget. For example, last night, I had a character blow up. Now, if I was making a movie, even an ultra low budget one, this effect would take a considerable amount of time and effort to pull off. Even if I was doing hand-drawn or computer animation an effect like that would be fairly complex and time consuming (whadda you think Shafe? Exploding CGI human, simple or hard?). In a comic, I can blow up as many people as I want, as many different ways as I want, and it will only take me anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour for zero dollars. Now that is some low budget storytelling.
The key, for me anyway, to creating wierd, crazy stuff in my comic mostly comes from just thinking along the old stream of consciousness. Just like the old mind wander and see what comes out. Then, all you gotta do is be brave enough to put that stuff down on paper. For example, back in the early days of my comics, I had the "serious" Monster/Hero comics (Cactus Joe, Halloween Gang, ect) together, and the Funny Animal comics (Walt & Sped, Iggy Iguana, ect) in another. Then one day I just had this idea, "What if we had Cactus Joe playing Dodgeball with Walt and Sped? That'd be funny." It was like I had been given an epiphany! Immediately, all sorts of new and exciting ideas came to my mind. Unfortunately, then I had the usual negative thoughts, like, "That's stupid. No one's gonna like it if you have your funny animals and your monster heroes running around together." Doubts began to sink in, and I about killed the idea right there. But then I thought, "What Would Jack Kirby Do?" And the answer to that question was, "Kirby would do anything he damn well felt like, no matter how odd or unconventional it was, and he would make it kick so much ass that your jaw would instinctively drop while reading it." Now, I may not have got that second part right, but I went ahead and slapped the "silly" and "serious" aspects of my comic together, and viola! my comic was rejuvanated. So, the next you're working on a creative endevor, and you think to yourself "This idea is too silly or radical or wierd," take a tip from Joseph Morris, Comic Guy and Cultural Guru, and Just Do It. (I'm full of cheap slogans today)
Today's Comic You Cannot Live Without is "Jack Kirby's New Gods". You want insane creativity at its best? Check out this kickin collection from DC. The scene with the giant whale monster is worth the price of admission alone.
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