![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We'll Become Silhouettes
Hmmm. I wish today was a bit more cloudy, because it would feel like a perfect day for the Postal Service, then. Ah, what the hell, I'll play them anyway.
I decided to fill the bookshop with Britpop music after 5, and it made for some interesting results. Pink Floyd's "Bike" followed by Craig David's "My Girlfriend," then "M1 A1" from the Gorillaz. And "A Wolf at the Door" from Radiohead to bring it all home. There was also Coldplay, but for some reason the random feature of our CD player didn't like them. By the way, I wouldn't recommend "M1 A1" for anyone who's even remotely spaced out. The "Hello? Is anybody there?" prologue bit is liable to give nightmares and completely harsh whatever experience you might be having. :)
There was an odd dream last night. I was running around this place that felt suspiciously like a community college for young people or something, with my mom and one of her congregation's elders. The odd part about it was my mom had pretty much forgiven me for being gay, and she was having a great time hinting about it but trying to keep the elder from catching on. So we were exploring this apparently abandoned place, and my mom would be saying things like, "Come out of the closet, boy! It's not that hard." I think this might have been spurred on by her asking if the poems I had published earlier this year were dirty. I really don't think I should send her a copy of "To A Gardener." She'll have to stick with "Mulattoes...".
I've started thinking a lot about "A Salvation's Chorus" again, and what I'd like to do with it. For those who've never heard of this venture (or have promptly forgotten), "Salvation" is an idea for a webcomic that I've been noodling around forever now. It's been in various stages of development for the past two years, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparky_d even drew some lovely fan art for it. I think I might have the distinction of being the only webcomic writer whose comic doesn't even exist yet getting fan art for it. Go me!
Anyway, it's a furry slice-of-life comic set in a college. Good God, don't we have enough of *those*? However, I have a few 'tricks' I intend to use to make things interesting. I really love the style of storytelling where the main character shifts from story to story, so for a stetch of time it'll be Character X's comic, and then slowly it'll start developing into Character Y's comic. I think having a dearth of characters means I can tell all different kinds of stories and explore all different kinds of issues using the same world. It assures that one character, also, never gets tedious with whatever he's going through. It's also a bit of a challenge trying to weave all these concurrent things into a whole, seamlessly, and the possibility is something I find exciting.
One of the *major* things I hope to explore in the comic is the process of self-discovery. College is a prime time for it; it's most people's first time living away from home, and the environment openly supports the practice of trying new things, really figuring out what makes you tick away from the people who've nurtured you up until that point. I think it's one of the first real points in life where your nature really comes out. Unformed, crude and confused, maybe, but it gets refined over time.
One aspect of the story is, of course, homosexuality. I think it's possible to explore the process of realizing it, hiding it, accepting it and living it quite well. Most of the gay furry comics out there tell really sanitized versions of it. "ASB" portrayed Danny as being "Maybe I'm gay" to "OMG gimme that cock!!!11!!1" in about four pages, and they committed the cardinal sin of sacrificing character stories for smut almost every time. Issue 8 really felt like "Bizarro World", where Steven has pity-sex with Ricky, who throws off his gown to reveal pink ladies' underwear during his valedictorian speech...and is cheered for it, and Danny's conservative Christian father pays for his boyfriend's graduate studies, even though last we saw them there was a pretty nasty split. That, and Tiny reveals that he has no problems with his boyfriend lusting after another man for the entirety of the strip. Oh, and I think there's hetero sex between Tina and somebody crammed in there as well. I mean, come *on*. The West Wing does a far more believable job of liberal wish-fulfillment. To be fair, yeah they only had 8 issues and you have to build up sales somehow. But "ASB" had such *promise*, the stories were there, waiting to be plucked and told...but they chose cock over character, almost every time.
That's why ultimately "ASB" was important; it showed the potential of the whole coming-out story while also serving as a warning to potential pitfalls in an exaggerated degree. "Circles" came along and avoided the rampant sex part, but I do think the limitations of times they can publish per year prevents them from really exploring *their* full potential, too. I like "Circles" an awful lot, though; the characters are well-realized, and the inclusion of a 'sick' man and the tension that exists (existed?) from the whole situation was tremendously exciting. Mnay of the problems are kind of fixed by issue's end, so it lends itself to a sitcommy feel, but it's resolutions are a lot more gentle, less-madcap than "ASB".
And "Carpe Diem" is pretty much a furry soap-opera, which isn't really what I'm going for. :)
Anyway, I want to drag out that particular aspect of the story over quite a period of time, so that it's almost always on the periphery until it's time to address it and become an issue. The character in question will have a girlfriend before hand, won't even think about the possibility at first. And eventually, the signs that have been planted along the way will become more obvious, until he realizes he's gone down the slipper slope of becoming a cock-goblin. Mwahahahahaha. :D
In the meantime, I want to deal with suicide, and Internet addiction, and race-mongering silliness (I've been considering making the minorities different orders of Animalia: marsupials, and lizards, and avians. No obvious parallels, mind you, but the situation is there.). The Freshman 15, drug experimentation, religion *especially*. I want to portray the question of spirituality as realistically and sympathetically as possible, so that not all religious folks are jusy gay-bashing villains. I want there to be conflict, but I'd love to make both sides understood.
"Salvation" is a huge thing in scope, to me, because there's so *much* I want to do with it. If allowed to tell it the way I'd ideally tell it, it's an 8-year story; a year for each semester, with possible comic books detailing Christmas break and summer vacation. And a starting cast of about 12 characters. Which, for a daily comic strip, is excessively large. Only three or four of them would be major at any one time, depending, but the idea is that they all get roughly equal time throughout the course of the strip.
The trouble is, I would need an artist I've decided. My art skills aren't completely worthlessly, and they'd certainly get better if I were drawing a comic every day, but the weight of the story *and* the art would make "Salvation" so labor-intensive for me, I'd worry about burning out on it. I'm nowhere near ready to shop around for artists at this point, but it's another thing I'd have to consider. I really don't think it's something I could do *all* by myself.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. I won't even *begin* to spazz about the comic book idea I have. That's a story for another campfire. It does feature unwitting teenagers turning into birds and foxes and trees and stuff, though. It makes me giddily weird thinking about it.
I decided to fill the bookshop with Britpop music after 5, and it made for some interesting results. Pink Floyd's "Bike" followed by Craig David's "My Girlfriend," then "M1 A1" from the Gorillaz. And "A Wolf at the Door" from Radiohead to bring it all home. There was also Coldplay, but for some reason the random feature of our CD player didn't like them. By the way, I wouldn't recommend "M1 A1" for anyone who's even remotely spaced out. The "Hello? Is anybody there?" prologue bit is liable to give nightmares and completely harsh whatever experience you might be having. :)
There was an odd dream last night. I was running around this place that felt suspiciously like a community college for young people or something, with my mom and one of her congregation's elders. The odd part about it was my mom had pretty much forgiven me for being gay, and she was having a great time hinting about it but trying to keep the elder from catching on. So we were exploring this apparently abandoned place, and my mom would be saying things like, "Come out of the closet, boy! It's not that hard." I think this might have been spurred on by her asking if the poems I had published earlier this year were dirty. I really don't think I should send her a copy of "To A Gardener." She'll have to stick with "Mulattoes...".
I've started thinking a lot about "A Salvation's Chorus" again, and what I'd like to do with it. For those who've never heard of this venture (or have promptly forgotten), "Salvation" is an idea for a webcomic that I've been noodling around forever now. It's been in various stages of development for the past two years, and
sparky_d even drew some lovely fan art for it. I think I might have the distinction of being the only webcomic writer whose comic doesn't even exist yet getting fan art for it. Go me!Anyway, it's a furry slice-of-life comic set in a college. Good God, don't we have enough of *those*? However, I have a few 'tricks' I intend to use to make things interesting. I really love the style of storytelling where the main character shifts from story to story, so for a stetch of time it'll be Character X's comic, and then slowly it'll start developing into Character Y's comic. I think having a dearth of characters means I can tell all different kinds of stories and explore all different kinds of issues using the same world. It assures that one character, also, never gets tedious with whatever he's going through. It's also a bit of a challenge trying to weave all these concurrent things into a whole, seamlessly, and the possibility is something I find exciting.
One of the *major* things I hope to explore in the comic is the process of self-discovery. College is a prime time for it; it's most people's first time living away from home, and the environment openly supports the practice of trying new things, really figuring out what makes you tick away from the people who've nurtured you up until that point. I think it's one of the first real points in life where your nature really comes out. Unformed, crude and confused, maybe, but it gets refined over time.
One aspect of the story is, of course, homosexuality. I think it's possible to explore the process of realizing it, hiding it, accepting it and living it quite well. Most of the gay furry comics out there tell really sanitized versions of it. "ASB" portrayed Danny as being "Maybe I'm gay" to "OMG gimme that cock!!!11!!1" in about four pages, and they committed the cardinal sin of sacrificing character stories for smut almost every time. Issue 8 really felt like "Bizarro World", where Steven has pity-sex with Ricky, who throws off his gown to reveal pink ladies' underwear during his valedictorian speech...and is cheered for it, and Danny's conservative Christian father pays for his boyfriend's graduate studies, even though last we saw them there was a pretty nasty split. That, and Tiny reveals that he has no problems with his boyfriend lusting after another man for the entirety of the strip. Oh, and I think there's hetero sex between Tina and somebody crammed in there as well. I mean, come *on*. The West Wing does a far more believable job of liberal wish-fulfillment. To be fair, yeah they only had 8 issues and you have to build up sales somehow. But "ASB" had such *promise*, the stories were there, waiting to be plucked and told...but they chose cock over character, almost every time.
That's why ultimately "ASB" was important; it showed the potential of the whole coming-out story while also serving as a warning to potential pitfalls in an exaggerated degree. "Circles" came along and avoided the rampant sex part, but I do think the limitations of times they can publish per year prevents them from really exploring *their* full potential, too. I like "Circles" an awful lot, though; the characters are well-realized, and the inclusion of a 'sick' man and the tension that exists (existed?) from the whole situation was tremendously exciting. Mnay of the problems are kind of fixed by issue's end, so it lends itself to a sitcommy feel, but it's resolutions are a lot more gentle, less-madcap than "ASB".
And "Carpe Diem" is pretty much a furry soap-opera, which isn't really what I'm going for. :)
Anyway, I want to drag out that particular aspect of the story over quite a period of time, so that it's almost always on the periphery until it's time to address it and become an issue. The character in question will have a girlfriend before hand, won't even think about the possibility at first. And eventually, the signs that have been planted along the way will become more obvious, until he realizes he's gone down the slipper slope of becoming a cock-goblin. Mwahahahahaha. :D
In the meantime, I want to deal with suicide, and Internet addiction, and race-mongering silliness (I've been considering making the minorities different orders of Animalia: marsupials, and lizards, and avians. No obvious parallels, mind you, but the situation is there.). The Freshman 15, drug experimentation, religion *especially*. I want to portray the question of spirituality as realistically and sympathetically as possible, so that not all religious folks are jusy gay-bashing villains. I want there to be conflict, but I'd love to make both sides understood.
"Salvation" is a huge thing in scope, to me, because there's so *much* I want to do with it. If allowed to tell it the way I'd ideally tell it, it's an 8-year story; a year for each semester, with possible comic books detailing Christmas break and summer vacation. And a starting cast of about 12 characters. Which, for a daily comic strip, is excessively large. Only three or four of them would be major at any one time, depending, but the idea is that they all get roughly equal time throughout the course of the strip.
The trouble is, I would need an artist I've decided. My art skills aren't completely worthlessly, and they'd certainly get better if I were drawing a comic every day, but the weight of the story *and* the art would make "Salvation" so labor-intensive for me, I'd worry about burning out on it. I'm nowhere near ready to shop around for artists at this point, but it's another thing I'd have to consider. I really don't think it's something I could do *all* by myself.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on it. I won't even *begin* to spazz about the comic book idea I have. That's a story for another campfire. It does feature unwitting teenagers turning into birds and foxes and trees and stuff, though. It makes me giddily weird thinking about it.