Adventure, Ho!
Most of the stories I write are Action stories which are filtered through a sorta Horror/Superhero/Weird Stuff Mesh. I get a kick outa writing Action Stories, and they're easy to write to boot. I also write a lotta Comedy/Fun stories. Some people dig my Comedy stuff more than my Action stuff, but if I wrote either exclusively, I'd go nuts and kill myself out of boredom. Gots to have variety. I also write a fair amount of stories that are, for lack of a better term, Experimental. These stories typically allow me to just kind of dump my subconscious out on the table and see what patterns emerge.
The only story type I've wanted to tell and never really got to yet is the Adventure story. That's a darn shame, and I'll tell you why.
I Loves me a good Adventure. I grew up on arguably the greatest Adventure series of all time, the Indiana Jones movie series. Love those flicks. Hell, they're the main reason why I'm always drawing characters wearing fedoras. I've also enjoyed lots of other adventures. The Hobbit was my favorite novel before I read Stephen King's "It". I, like most people without a stick up their ass, loved the Lord of the Rings movies (and, yes, Randall, the plot can be boiled down to people walking around alot, but that's kinda every Adventure. More on that later...). I recently figured out why all those stuck up types dig the old "Scrooge McDuck" comics so much: they're fun, good olde fashioned adventures.
But probably my current favorite Adventure story is the Japanese Manga "One Piece". "One Piece" started out as an Action story, as Monkey D. Luffy, the Rubber Pirate, spent most of his time recruiting pirates to his crew and fighting Bad Guy Pirates. But as the series has progressed, it's become less "Fight" oriented and more about the travels and trials that Luffy and his crew experience. Sure there's a good olde fashioned bare knuckle brawl every so often (usually at the end of a story arc), but the rest of the story is devoted to the crew's travels. The current story arc is a prime example of this. One of the crew members, Nami the Navigator/Thief, gets sick. In order to cure her, the crew has to land on a wintery island. Unfortunately, the only doctor lives on top of a mountain, so Luffy and his companions have to cross difficult terrain and face a variety of dangers on their way to their goal, which is finding a cure to save Nami. Classic Adventuring in other words.
Like I've said, I've never really done an Adventure story. The problem is I'm just not hardwired that way. Adventure stories are typically very Situationally oriented. The heroes have to face a variety of dangers and challenges on their way towards some Goal. I've never been a very Goal oriented writer. If my characters have a Goal, it's usually just some lame set piece, like the copy of "Circutry Man" that Cactus Joe and company are looking for in "Super Duper Fun Comix: Violent Video". Also, I don't tend to compound the challenges my characters face. It's usually One Big Problem that my heroes need to smash (or on some RARE occassions Outwit) their way through. Alota this has to do with time and space. I only have so much room in the average comic to tell a story, so I tend to be rather spartan when it comes to situations, leaving me more room for Character Development, Witty Dialogue/Humorous Situations, and UltraViolent Action Sequences. BUT, the aforementioned Scrooge McDuck stories have proven time and time again that you can create surprisingly Epic Adventures using a ridiculous minimum of pages, and still have plenty of room left over for Characterization and Humor (No real ultraviolence in those Uncle Scrooge comics, sorry to say...).
Long story short, in a year or three, I'm gonna start trying my hand at writing some Adventure stories. Just some short fun ones. We'll see if I can properly rewire my brain or not. If I can, I'll try my hand at some longer ones. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll write my own little Epic.
The only story type I've wanted to tell and never really got to yet is the Adventure story. That's a darn shame, and I'll tell you why.
I Loves me a good Adventure. I grew up on arguably the greatest Adventure series of all time, the Indiana Jones movie series. Love those flicks. Hell, they're the main reason why I'm always drawing characters wearing fedoras. I've also enjoyed lots of other adventures. The Hobbit was my favorite novel before I read Stephen King's "It". I, like most people without a stick up their ass, loved the Lord of the Rings movies (and, yes, Randall, the plot can be boiled down to people walking around alot, but that's kinda every Adventure. More on that later...). I recently figured out why all those stuck up types dig the old "Scrooge McDuck" comics so much: they're fun, good olde fashioned adventures.
But probably my current favorite Adventure story is the Japanese Manga "One Piece". "One Piece" started out as an Action story, as Monkey D. Luffy, the Rubber Pirate, spent most of his time recruiting pirates to his crew and fighting Bad Guy Pirates. But as the series has progressed, it's become less "Fight" oriented and more about the travels and trials that Luffy and his crew experience. Sure there's a good olde fashioned bare knuckle brawl every so often (usually at the end of a story arc), but the rest of the story is devoted to the crew's travels. The current story arc is a prime example of this. One of the crew members, Nami the Navigator/Thief, gets sick. In order to cure her, the crew has to land on a wintery island. Unfortunately, the only doctor lives on top of a mountain, so Luffy and his companions have to cross difficult terrain and face a variety of dangers on their way to their goal, which is finding a cure to save Nami. Classic Adventuring in other words.
Like I've said, I've never really done an Adventure story. The problem is I'm just not hardwired that way. Adventure stories are typically very Situationally oriented. The heroes have to face a variety of dangers and challenges on their way towards some Goal. I've never been a very Goal oriented writer. If my characters have a Goal, it's usually just some lame set piece, like the copy of "Circutry Man" that Cactus Joe and company are looking for in "Super Duper Fun Comix: Violent Video". Also, I don't tend to compound the challenges my characters face. It's usually One Big Problem that my heroes need to smash (or on some RARE occassions Outwit) their way through. Alota this has to do with time and space. I only have so much room in the average comic to tell a story, so I tend to be rather spartan when it comes to situations, leaving me more room for Character Development, Witty Dialogue/Humorous Situations, and UltraViolent Action Sequences. BUT, the aforementioned Scrooge McDuck stories have proven time and time again that you can create surprisingly Epic Adventures using a ridiculous minimum of pages, and still have plenty of room left over for Characterization and Humor (No real ultraviolence in those Uncle Scrooge comics, sorry to say...).
Long story short, in a year or three, I'm gonna start trying my hand at writing some Adventure stories. Just some short fun ones. We'll see if I can properly rewire my brain or not. If I can, I'll try my hand at some longer ones. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll write my own little Epic.
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