ALL I NEED IS 8 PAGES! Part 1: NANOWRIMO 2020, "Karen's Dilemma!" (1983!) remake, etc.

[Sunday, April 11, 2021: A NOTE OF EXPLANATION: I originally wrote a version of this post back on December 1, 2020 and I shared it on a private Facebook group that has only two members, myself and Pam C. Pam and I are the lone members of something we call The Apple Corps Comicbook Club (ACCC), an informal art group that is actually a splinter group from the now defunct Crabapple Club, but read further into the actual post below to learn more about these two groups. Pam and I still meet infrequently via the Apple Corps, especially VERY infrequently in 2020 what with Covid-19, lockdowns and social distancing going on, but we DO still meet, and we DO still have ambitions to self-publish a comic (a single issue with a 10-page story each, that's the goal). Anyway, in November of 2020, I had this damn other idea in my head and shortly thereafter, Pam told me that her goal for Nanowrimo 2020 was to write out her plot for her ACCC story. The Nanowrimo deadline (Nov. 30) seemed like an excellent deadline to work with, so I decided to adopt it as well and to share my progress with Pam in our FB group. I was originally hesitant to actually share this with anyone else, but eventually felt comfortable doing so with Pam at least, but after sharing a couple posts, I figured: eh! what the hell? So, this is more or less the first of those FB posts, except in the process I found out that the formatting in Facebook is not the same as on Blogger, so instead of simply cutting and pasting the file from FB, I've had to re-type the whole thing here so it "sits right." And I found THAT task to be a phenomenally tedious job, so it's taken me forever. I'm sure there was probably a much, MUCH easier way to do this, but if so, I, the old, tech-challenged dude, wasn't aware of it and/or forgot about it.

Okay, none of this information was really important to share, but for you "blog completists" I thought it was worth the explanation. But, even this explanation you have to take with a grain of salt. The post you're reading now has been extensively re-edited, mostly for clarification and for reduction of redundancy, hopefully. But, since I seem to have some Mojo Jojo running through my DNA, that last point is debatable. Anyway... now you know. You may now continue reading at your leisure. Thank you!]

Saturday, November 14, 7:10 pm

An attempt at a progress report.

Sunday, November 15, 9:20 pm

Okay, after a couple days or so of trying to figure out what my plot is for these 8 pages, I've wound up exactly NOWHERE. I think the idea of expanding a flawed single-page story, and heck, not even a full single-page at that, into an 8-page expansion of arguably the same story was a brilliant opportunity... except I seem stymied from the get-go. I keep considering different approaches and none seem satisfactory.

Well, waking up this morning, it occurs to me that my initial approach is to cram all sorts of new stuff into the story, including adding new characters and sub-plots. In the back of my head, I think I realize this approach would require me to go beyond my specified hard limit of 8-pages. So, this morning, it occurred to me to literally expand EACH single PANEL of the original single-page story into a FULL-PAGE. It roughly works out that the original story has 8-ish panels to work with. Let's break it down into beats.

Okay, actually there's 11 panels, not counting the 12th panel which is the supposed "cover" image to "Interplanetary Romances" with Brad and Trudy.

So, my strategy is, try to break down those original 11 panels into their separate dramatic beats, especially organizing them into 8 pages/units. This seems like a constructive approach.

Wednesday, November 18, 10:49 pm

Yet, more impulsive bullshit projects I've suddenly decided to do. Although, this is a continuing topic of thought and self-discussion, so this is merely the latest incarnation.

In a recent post of mine on Facebook to my friend, I responded to her post where she said she was going to do Nanowrimo this year and she'd be working on her script for her comic book story for our Apple Corps Comicbook Club (ACCC) and our DECADE PLUS unfulfilled objective to self-publish a comic featuring a comic book story from both of us. It was probably as early as 2002 when we first discussed this goal back when we were the Crabapple Club at Great Arrow Graphics (GAG), so... 17-18 years ago? JEEZ. The Crabapple Club was comprised of five of us: Dan C., Josh H., Will R., Pam and myself, all of us GAG employees. But when Pam and I both eventually left GAG (well, I was let go in 2003, she left sometime later), we formed the ACCC splinter group and have been meeting semi-regularly since (meanwhile, the other members didn't continue meeting back at GAG).

Anyway, I have in mind the subject matter for my ACCC story and no, I haven't done any significant work on that story. Although, I have a rough, very broad outline in my head for it, at least.

But getting back to this new impulsive bullshit project (YAY!), it is NOT that ACC story (of course).

This spanking new project is simply getting back to my longtime goals to 1) do an 8-page mini-comic story AND 2) to update my first INTERPLANETARY ROMANCES effort.

As I told Pam in our private Facebook group:

So, I've decided on this so-called new project for my Nanowrimo project, or at least, what I'm going to focus on for the rest of the month. I've accumulated a number of unfinished art and comics related goals over the decades, but this time I'm choosing two specific unfinished comic book story goals, going back several years. The first goal dates back to the Crabapple Club when I saw Dan C.'s 8-page mini-comics that he created in his youth (BLOODHOUND! co-created with Adam (GREENPIECE) Owen). Ever since I saw them, I've wanted to try my hand at making at least one 8-page mini-comic, if not more. "Mini-comic" because they're only a quarter the size of a regular 8.5"x11" sheet of paper (so, 4" x 5.5", natch!). Well, THAT never happened. My second goal was to re-make my 1-page story "Karen's Dilemma!," an INTERPLANETARY ROMANCES story which I did for the Buffalo State College RECORD, the school newspaper; in fact that's the first and, well, only, I.R. comic story I ever did. As much as I like the effort I put into it and the original results, there are some issues I have with it every time I re-read it: specifically the telling of the actual "story" and especially the conclusion. [NOTE: This story was the only one (1) actual comic style INTERPLANETARY ROMANCES story I ever did (and that was barely a full page); my other I.R. efforts were a "faux comic cover" illustration of Brad and Trudy together (similar to a faux movie trailer, which is only a trailer for an imaginary, non-existent movie, this "cover" doesn't actually have a comic to go with it, alas!) and a faux pseudo-greeting card concept of Brad and Trudy and that drawing took several years to actually complete - not that I was working on it continuously, I simply started it in the 80s and then never finished it, finally getting back to it in the early 90s - but, hey! Better LATE, than NEVER.]

So, I've been focused on the idea of re-doing "Karen's Dilemma!" again, and I decided to do an 8-page version of it, so I'll be addressing both creative goals at once. However, I've made one adjustment: I'll be doing the 8-page comic FULL SIZE: 10" x 15" (original artwork). So far, I've been having a terrible time fleshing out the plot-line (uh, like, keeping it short and sweet) that I couldn't deal with the size restriction of a page only a quarter of that size (although those little, itty-bitty mini-comics DO look so CUTE!), so that's my (supposedly) lone compromise. 

At first, I thought this would be a comparative piece of cake, re-doing a story I've already written but simply doing a longer version of it. However, I immediately started complicating things - naturally - like considering all sorts of additional elements to throw into the story, because I'm being so seduced by the expanse of 8 LARGER pages to work with.

The original story happened in a space 8"x8" square, and even that wasn't all story. Part of it was a large panel simulating a comic book cover and was the first image of Brad and Trudy in love. So, that first story was really crammed into a little space. 

At first glance it looks impressively busy and detailed, but as you read it, all the panels are fighting to be seen and heard. The art is fighting with word balloons, so there are lots of overlapping images and panels and as it is, the captions and word balloons are pretty redundant exposition-wise, which is rather ironic if you're considering the story's need for space. In hindsight, I'm forgiving myself for these problematic issues because at the time I was up against a newspaper deadline, so I was making decisions and moving along simply to complete the damn thing in time. Perhaps if I had an additional day I would have edited and organized the story more effectively, but alas. NOTE: the TRUTH is, if I HAD that extra time, maybe I would NEVER HAVE FINISHED IT!

Anyway, after wrestling with how to re-do the story the last few days, trying to just rough out a plot and layout for each of the 8 pages but getting nowhere, I woke up this morning with a new approach. I re-visited my original layout and realized that I told the story in 11 panels (not counting the "Interplanetary Romances cover image" panel with Brad and Trudy). It's arguably almost a 1-to-1 ratio of Panel to Full Page in terms of the single-page story to the 8-page remake version. So, starting today, I'm trying to break down these 11 panels into 8 dramatic beats or scenes, and maybe I'll finally make some progress in my goal to plot and layout my story over 8 pages.

Maybe this approach would have been more obvious to others, but it took some banging my head against an imaginary wall over a few days to get to this point.

Baby steps!

Anyway, 15 MORE DAYS TO GET THIS FINISHED!

...and to update the ABOVE post, now I have TWELVE days to finish.

Ah, nuts.

Thursday, November 19, 10:31 am

I've tried outlining the story and as you can see, it's already getting WAY out of hand. I'm still trying to cram all sorts of elements into the plot. I just need to come up with a story and then start laying it out.

For instance:

1. I'm considering approaching things from a JANE EYRE (the novel) perspective:

        A. Trying to write Starla's* dialogue (*BTW, and yes, the name of my protagonist is no longer "Karen" as it was in the original 1-pager, natch! I decided to shoot for a more sci-fi flavored moniker...) to resemble more the style of Jane Eyre's manner of speaking, an admittedly ridiculous idea AND ambition. 

        B. Scene parody of Jane at the Lowood Institution where her only friend was Helen Burns, but in this case, it's Starla's sheep, also named Helen out of respect. In this a School for Sheep? Space Sheep? Maybe a reference to animals sent into space? Out of all of Starla's ambitions for space travel and space exploration, this is the best she can do and she confronts cruelty at the School.

                i. IDEA: Combine parody of Lowood Institution and Jane's relationship with Helen Burns AND also Jane's being the governess of Adele. Starla names the sheep Adele Burns, a combination of names. Maybe she names all the sheep, an indication Starla's eccentricity.  

                ii. IDEA: Starla enrolls in a Space Agency hoping to eventually move up into research and also research a local planet, etc. Her boss (modeled on Mr. Brocklehurst from the novel), a longtime bachelor, has his eyes on Starla. He seems both cruel (or extremely strict) and yet fascinated by her, and then he learns of her ambitions. He proposes to her, first seducing her with a possible opportunity to fulfill her research and space exploration dreams, and then reveals it's both a proposal of marriage (possibly of convenience) to relocate to a new Starbase on the moon, but it's only open to couples and families. The hope is they can "naturally" populate and develop the Starbase. "Brocklehurst" emphasizes the need for her to become a mother and to bear children, their children, and especially HIS children. Starla is horrified by this new proposition and realizes what her boss's actual designs are for her and candidly tells him no, although unwittingly because she THINKS all this and then realizes she's been thinking OUT LOUD and he heard her (!). Humiliated, "Brocklehurst" immediately, impulsively transfers Starla to the Sheep Station, a remote, lonely outpost that arguably fulfills his promise to her to assist her with her research ambitions, but is challenging for its remoteness and lack of human contact. Shocked, but also stubborn, she accepts. That's how she gets to the Sheep School.

        C. How does she meet Gland? Is he stealing sheep for his own alien purposes? Right now, Gland is supposedly Rochester to Starla's Jane Eyre.

                i. IDEA: While at the Sheep School, dealing with her long-term solitude, Starla notices that the local alien bird-life which exist outside the dome keep crashing into the glass. Starla tries to figure out ways to warn the spacebirds, but alas, the best she can do is nurse the injured and bury the dead. And then one day, Gland accidentally strikes the glass and falls to the ground. What Starla doesn't know is Gland has been abducting animals from the planetoid for research purposes, a fact he doesn't reveal to Starla. Secretly, he eyes the sheep as additional subjects.

        D. Adreena is Gland's hidden assistant, a nod to Rochester's mad wife locked in the attic.

2. Sci-fi plots/references from film and comics.

        A. IDEA: In the real world that Starla inhabits, it's a little run-down, modest. She uses devices, etc. that are obviously from the future, but they look like they were designed in the 30s, like they could have been used in Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials. But she's constantly bombarded with ads and videos for the latest ideas which look SO much better and more advanced. Almost parallel worlds, the one she lives in, and the one out of her reach.

3. Plots/tropes from Lifetime Movie Network movies?

4. A supposedly feminine plot-line or at least feminine elements:

        A. Focus on Starla's thoughts on everything, showing on she focuses on trying to have confidence in herself and ideas in spite of what others may think or advise her to do.

5. Trying to figure out what my romantic plot-line is since I really didn't have one the first time.

        A. Starla considers "Brocklehurst's" and rationalizes how that can help her achieve her ambitions and how she could tolerate such a literal marriage since she doesn't actually love him.

        B. IDEA: Each of the chapters (Three? Four?) focuses on a possible romantic match-up for Starla:

                i. CHAPTER ONE: "Brocklehurst" (see A.)

                ii. CHAPTER TWO: Gland.

                iii. CHAPTER THREE: Starla, considering or resigned to "spinsterhood".

                iv. CHAPTER FOUR: Adreena.

6. Fashion.

7. Artistic approach.

8. Cheating with the 8-page format. Okay, I'm finally starting to have some ideas, definitely inspired by JANE EYRE. But as I start to think of more material, I'm worried that I probably will have too much for 8 pages to sustain. This is my Achilles' heel! One of the rules for this project is to keep to 8 pages and I need to do that in order to finish it (and hopefully by the end of this month!). So, here's my compromise: 

This 8 pages is simply a chapter but a complete chapter. If I do go this route, then I think I'll have enough possible story material to justify 24 pages (i.e. three chapters).

        A. IDEA: CHAPTER 1: The Sheep My Destination (or Why Can't Starla Get a Clue?) - format idea: Chapter title is a parody of a noted sci-fi work and also a specific comment on Starla's journey.

        B. IDEA: Title for the series: 2145 A.D.: THE PERTINACIOUS ODYSSEY OF STARLA SOLARO.

Sunday, November 22, 1:56 am    

FUCK.

So, those above notes? Screw them. No, the ideas are okay (well, maybe) but I don't think it's going to be 8 pages long, or hell, even 24 pages long. Maybe I should save it for my deluxe Jane Eyre "re-make/genre mash-up" sprawling concept?

But, now I'm working on ANOTHER idea for this 8-page exercise. The working title: DERANGED DETOUR. Originally it was THE DANCER'S DERANGED DETOUR. I liked the idea of the extended alliteration, but it just didn't really flow.

Anyway, who knows if THIS story idea will stay to 8-pages, either, but the concept, or at least, the separate elements within the "story" have me currently entertained and I think I have a Beginning Middle and End... well, maybe a Beginning and End and a very-needs-work, shapeless Middle. 

This is a completely different concept from the STARLA SOLARO idea. It has a space vampire, a werewolf/shapeshifter character and is set on an alternative parallel Earth.

Yeah.

Okay, anyway, I have EIGHT DAYS left to finish this, so it means I have to average 1 page a day in order to accomplish this (by my self-imposed deadline).

Fuck, if I can do three fairly finished pages by the end of the month, I'll be happy. But I need to still finish the story by the end of 2021. Thinking candidly, with three finished pages I'd still be further ahead of Pam, if I were being competitive.

Meanwhile, some "technical issues." I started describing color in the first bit of writing I did, so now I'm thinking I should do the story in fucking color. Dammit.

Alright, I'm going to try and do some writing.

Thursday, November 26, aka Thanksgiving, 1:33 am

OMG. 

So, FIVE FUCKING DAYS LEFT and I haven't even STARTED on this fucking 8-page project. I mean, other than supposedly thinking and stewing about possible stories, etc.

I dunno. I'm starting to give up hope that I'm ever going to do ANY drawing or comics creating, ever. EVER.

FUCK.

I think I really need to embrace the idea of me, as a self-conscious "artist," having and currently going through a so-called Shitty Comics Phase of my art "career" and just crap out miserable looking comics, miserably-looking, miserable to read as part of this phase of my "development."

Also I've been back to doing one of my bad habits again, which I won't get into here specifically, but whatever, that's going on, too, so that's contributing to my lack of any self-worth, etc.

FUCK FUCK FUCKKKK.

Alright, let me see if I can do anything constructive before I go to bed tonight.

GODDAMMIT.

(Oh, and there's definitely an uptick in the amount of swearing I've been doing lately, too, in case you haven't fucking noticed... the fucking heck.)

Tuesday, December 1, 10:04 am

Well, NUTS.

It's December. Yesterday was my self-imposed deadline and I did JACK SHIT on trying to do an 8-page comic before the end of November, other than a lot of "story" and "idea" notes and bullshit like that, as evidenced above.

There were maybe three separate though "overlapping" ideas (overlapping in that they may have shared some story elements... I think until I finally DO a story - like actual drawing, actual inking, actually on paper - some of my same ideas will occasionally migrate into various stories I'm thinking of only because I haven't actually exorcised them properly from my brain by using them yet in an actual story, if that makes any sense), and of these three separate ideas I keep eventually jettisoning them because I felt they were going to be longer than 8-pages. I hadn't embraced the Deadline Doom seriously enough to finally say "fuck it" and just DO IT. To a certain extant, I had that Deadline Doom in my DNA way back in the 80s when I did the original Interplanetary Romances 1-pager. Back then, I HAD to commit because the clock was literally running (newspaper deadline, natch!) and I didn't have time to back out. And in hindsight, the eventual story I created suffers from specific storytelling issues because I didn't have time to wrestle the logic or plot problems out. But the deadline also made me make creative solutions on the fly, like really cramming images together in order to get everything I wanted. I mean, visually, that's also a problem, it's way too crammed and doesn't breathe, but I DO like the inventiveness I employed to get certain visuals in: dropping a small circular insert panel to get a close-up; arrows to guide the eye-lines of the reader.

Eh! What are ya gonna do, hah?

ANYWAY, I have to somehow get back into that mindset of urgency and deadline discipline that I had way back when I was working on the school paper. SOMEHOW.

As far as I can see, these were the storylines I was obsessing about and entertaining doing throughout November:

1. 2145 A.D.: THE PERTINACIOUS ODYSSEY OF STARLA SOLARO (see above).

2. DERANGED DETOUR (see also above for some brief explanation).

3. MYSTERY PIT (very rough title): an extended version of KAREN'S DILEMMA, except thoroughly manhandled and re-worked. Now, the protagonist's name is Sondra Kerk and instead of Buff State for a setting, I've set it in the fictional state of EAST Virginia and located near a rip-off of the actual tourist trap, the Mystery Hole (located in the actual state of WEST Virginia, near Hawk's Nest), this time calling it the Mystery Pit. But, I keep wrestling with various UFO abduction tropes and then trying to subvert them, but with no success. 

The tropes I keep coming back to are:

        A. Sondra is abducted because she happens to be standing in a field of cows. The cows are being abducted and she is accidentally sucked aboard the UFO with one of them.

        B. I'm still hanging onto the idea of Gland and his assistant, Adreena, or maybe Gland and Adreena are simply co-pilots, but with very different ideas of what to do on their mission. This is an example of the "overlapping" I'm talking about, since I seem to want to use Gland and Adreena in the STARLA SOLARO story, too.

        C. But, I'm also considering a completely different storyline that uses a Mystery Hole idea I had after we vacationed in W. Virginia: an old woman has been patiently, desperately waiting for a long-lost love who (uh, SPOILER ALERT!) turns out to be an alien. The location of the Mystery Hole is significant to both lovers (but I don't know exactly what that means).   

        D. This morning I had a much darker idea for this story: the aliens are dissecting the cows they abduct and Sondra is horrified at their actions. But then they show her things they've discovered about humans in their years of studying our race, and we see all sorts of atrocities WE'VE done and are part of the social norm: animal testing, lynchings from our recent past with jubilant group photos, the crucifixion, etc. Sondra is horrified and... well, I don't know where to go with this after their idealogical confrontation. Does this story become a complete downer?

4. KAREN'S DILEMMA remake: Jeez. After reading the description for MYSTERY PIT, I realize that that story really isn't KAREN'S DILEMMA at all. So, part of me STILL wants to do a "proper" version of KAREN'S DILEMMA, so that's another idea waiting to be realized.

To sum up, while the STARLA SOLARO story is unwritten, it is loosely based on JANE EYRE, so I have some sort of guideline. However, I now have ambitions to make it a long-form multi-chaptered story, strangely adhering to the Charlotte Bronte novel, maybe. DERANGED DETOUR sort of has a (very rough) Beginning, Middle, and End, but I have to figure it out properly. The MYSTERY PIT story is pretty much up for grabs still in terms of where I'm going with it plot-wise.

Anyway, so now I have ONE big deadline left: December 31, 2020.

Here's my last drawing goal(s) for 2020.

1. 5 DRAWINGS (new or unfinished (now completed))

2. Start working on CAT'S MEOW:

        A. Layout entire story.

        B. Pencil at least one page.

GO.

ALL I NEED IS 8 PAGES! Part...4?

NOTE: Here's ALL I NEED IS 8 PAGES, Part 1.

Saturday, December 26, 3:11 am

So, it's really late. I should go to bed, but I don't wanna. 

I also want to compulsively eat a bologna sandwich, but recently I impulsively made a spontaneous resolution to stop eating after midnight, so... DAMMIT.

Anyway, I fell asleep on the couch earlier and then woke up around midnight.

I've been on the computer more or less since then.

I don't want to go to bed because I feel like I haven't accomplished anything today (yesterday), but it is late, so I should just cut bait and start again tomorrow. NUTS.

Okay, just a quick update.

I've been trying to publish this other post that I started writing in November re: my take on doing a Nanowrimo type comic story. It didn't happen, but I wrote a series of posts in my private diary/blog on the same subject and then I decided to share it, figuring it was "safe" for public consumption, so to speak. But that supposedly simple idea took a detour into unexpected complications that I'm still trying to untangle (i.e. trying to smooth out various seemingly incompatible formatting issues between posting on Facebook and here on blogger). Meaning that, as I write this, I theoretically have 3 other installments that precede this post, but I'm trying to "fix" the first post and get that published first. Hopefully I'll publish that initial post in the next couple days while I'm still off (the next time I work is Monday (12/28)... and I start at 6:30 am. UGHHHH.)

While I try to work through the mess of Part 1, currently I'm still trying to start this comic story, and I feel (again) like I'm on the verge of finally starting something in earnest (meaning, actually having a script, even just for the first page, and then drawing/roughing out that first page, etc.). I mean, I'll believe it when I see it... but, anyway, I'm still struggling with trying to figure out the first page to this story before I go to bed.

Meanwhile, Christmas was good. It was a quiet day because of Covid, etc.

I was up pretty late last night wrapping gifts, and then I woke up and my wife and I had something to eat (she baked some cinnamon rolls... yum!), and then we opened our gifts. Let me say, EVERY Christmas she spoils me and this year was no different.

Afterwards, we went to visit her mom and exchange some gifts. It also snowed last night. Yes! A White Christmas! Okay, in recent years I've really become not that emotionally invested either way whether or not there's snow on Christmas Day or not; in fact, my general concern is whether the snow is going to be a problematic issue re: work, travel, clearing the driveway, etc., and I think that's a reflection of my ongoing aging and crankiness. Still, in this stupid, emotional year, a snowy, White Christmas seemed semi-miraculous and a reprieve from a lot of grief and anxiety. But man, I had to clear a LOT of snow off the car!

Alright, let me do whatever and then go to bed.

To be continued...

1:33 pm

...Indeed.

Meanwhile, I also have a handful of "loose ends" I'd like to address before 2021... and I don't know if I'll be able to pull any of them off. But, as usual, let me make a list and see what I can or can't cross off.

1. Publish previous ALL I WANT IS 8 PAGES posts (Parts 1-3) on this blog.

[NOTE: Finally, here's Part 1! (4/22/21)]

2. Finish posting #30DayFilmChallenge posts at my film blog.

3. Make room for my "new" (well used, but newer) computer.

4. Assemble my drawing table.

5. Try to clean/re-organize my bedroom/workspace.

6. Try to actually make some headway on this comic story. Like, draw Page 1?

Sunday, December 27, 8:36 am

DAMMIT.

I woke up maybe half an hour ago, but I could've slept more. Probably way more.

But Velvet (our black cat) was playing with one of the ornaments on our tree and I could hear her whacking it with her paw. She already spectacularly broke one yesterday. Well, we saw the results on the floor well after the crime was committed - shards of delicate broken glass and very fine gold glitter on the floor beneath the table - but based on circumstantial evidence we assume she's the culprit because 1) she's the only feline that insists on sleeping underneath the tree all curled up on the tree skirt AND 2) Velvet has shown interest multiple times in the hanging ornaments, sometimes standing on her hind feet to reach higher hanging ornaments. Aha!

Anyway, I was up damn late working on the story again, almost until 5:00 am. Way too late by at least a couple hours in terms of "acceptable" late night activity by my thinking.

And... I can tell I'm starting to jump the shark again in terms of story construction.

Whenever I'm attempting to SIMPLIFY a story idea, I seem to immediately start ADDING characters and plot "twists" (oh, believe me, that's a euphemism). Whenever I'm trying to SHORTEN a story, that's a certain cue for me to ADD chapters; the "trick" is I'm keeping the story short by considering a single chapter my story and thus, having my cake and eat it, too: "short" chapters for an "epic" story. And "epic" not necessarily by design but because my story keeps dragging on.

From three main characters, now I'm debating having five characters and a possible sixth minor character, and also, I've significantly complicated my one character's motivations and designs in the story.

That's pretty much where I left it last night when I went to bed.

Maybe I should just chalk up the improbable failure of how "good" this story is going to be to my anticipated "crappy comics period" as a cartoonist/artist. Ot more to the point, maybe I really need to just take the plunge and actually draw a first page and then try to solve story problems with each new page I draw. That would be more productive than I'm being now. Oh, and finally (eventually), put the finished story in a comic titled TALES THAT PROBABLY WON'T MAKE SENSE EVEN BY THEIR CONCLUSION BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THEM.

Oh! And I forgot my NUMBER ONE method of attempting to do a comic story that I'm struggling with: start with a BRAND NEW IDEA! That pretty much happened again.

Less than a week ago I was full on fleshing out a "simple" idea using an old character I created when I was in middle school (I think): Super Shlump, an anthropomorphic superhero. Well, after a few days of my typical obsessing with the character and coming up with story ideas, it started getting out of hand, so I bailed and started re-examining "simply" trying to expand my original "Karen's Dilemma!" story (again), but I just can't seem to stop being overly complicated.

So... here I am.

Trapped in several "stories"* I'm not sure how to proceed with (*still debatable if they even qualify as actual stories).

Arggghhhh...

11:30 am

Getting back to Super Shlump.

So, the original idea I had for that Super Shlump story was: SS is all excited to watch the season premiere of this TV show he LOVES, called COOKIE UNLEASHED! Cookie is a sexy female canine-anthropoid ex-undercover cop/current private detective/maybe vigilante. Unfortunately, SS keeps receiving calls for help ranging from the trivial to the spectacular and he's beside himself trying to attend to them all and still be back in time to watch the show. And the constant dynamic/shtick of Super Shlump is that he's a reluctant hero. If anything, he helps out of guilt rather than actual desire to help humanity... uh, that is, his fellow citizens. As far as I can remember, I never did any actual Super Shlump stories back when I first created him. That's pretty much my m.o.: I just come up with characters but never actually do anything with them. So, trying to figure out what to do with SS now was a slightly tough nut to crack: what exactly DID I want to do with him? Well, I finally started to come up with some ideas that seemed to stick (whether these ideas are any good, well, I'm not totally sure...), but I seem to have a comic sidekick now, Zipper the squirrel, and possibly a female neighbor named Totie, another dog - maybe a poodle? Trying to figure that one out. By the way, at least it's Totie for now, still not sure if I'm going to keep that.

Anyway, when I got to the point that I realized that I not only had a protagonist but two possible regular supporting characters (if I decide to continue with SS in additional stories), then I wondered about his origins. When I came up with him, all I had was a simple character design, figured it was going to be funny, and that he was a junkyard dog.

Now I'm wondering how he did come to be, how he got his powers. Also, what kind of world does he live in? Like, what are my rules for these anthropoid creatures? Obviously, it's not just dogs since I have a squirrel character. But even that posed questions: are all of these creatures anthropoidal? When you start dealing with smaller animals, like a squirrel, let's say, I think the temptation is to keep it squirrel, maybe bipedal, but pretty much keep it squirrel-like. While, anthropoid dogs can be less weird looking with human bodies and animal heads. Does that make sense? Or is that just me? It's part of the same question when you see funny animal strips that have various species in the cast, yet they're more or less on the same size level. But in real life, the sizes of those animals are extremely varied. Case in point: in Frank Cho's LIBERTY MEADOWS, one of the animals is a frog yet he's the same size as the other mammalian creatures (there's at least a pig and a dachshund and... a small bear, I think?). 

Okay, I just googled "Liberty Meadows" in an effort to jog my memory on the cast of characters and even Cho "mixes and matches": he not only has a frog character the same size as the pig character, but the dachshund is presented more realistically, like, a regular dachshund. So, in Cho's strip, I think he picks and chooses his approach. Part of me is pretty sure he simply finds the idea of a frog being the same size as the other characters as an amusing "funny animal" conceit, and part of me thinks he just likes to draw what he likes to draw: beautiful sexy women (Brandy, the female protagonist) and a dachshund, because they're cute? Or he has a dachshund? Or both? Digressing slightly, Cho also occasionally goes off on indulgent drawing tangents, doing a single intricately inked drawing for a Liberty Meadows strip and the subject matter sometimes having no connection to the actual LM universe, and he'll excuse its appearance in the strip by disclaiming he's "breaking in new ink nibs" or something to that effect. Actually, I have no problem with those brief digressions. I think they're pretty cool. Anyway, these represent some of the choices Cho makes, and because they come from the strip's creator, it gives some personal flavor to the strip as well.

That inconsistency with animal size is an almost common funny animal conceit in funny animal comics, I'm pretty sure. I mean, Mickey Mouse and Goofy look like inhabit the same universe. True, Goofy's taller to Mickey's shortness, but simply taller the way a regular tall person in comparison with a short person usually is. Except, Mickey's a MOUSE and Goofy's... a dog? And then, Disney complicates things more by the MOUSE owning a REGULAR dog, Pluto, who walks on all fours and doesn't talk, like a dog. Weird. But, as an audience we seem to accept it, pretty much. I mean, I can accept it intellectually and just ignore it the "factual discrepancies," but occasionally I'll stop and think about it (when I'm reading Liberty Meadows, for instance), and it screws with my brain ("why is that damn frog so BIG???"). 

Anyways... bla bla BLA BLA BLAHHH.

I guess I just have to figure out the rules for MY universe. 

And that also includes my drawing style. The original design for Super Shlump is very funny animal looking, but now I'm toying with updating him to be more... realistic looking, for lack of a better world. That approach may be more interesting to look at technique-wise, I think, but I don't know if it's conducive to this type of strip. Like, if Garfield and Odie were more realistically drawn, would GARFIELD be as funny? Questions! Questions! So many questions!

Which means I have to get off my think-y ass and get going with my drawing bad self.

It also occurred to me that I could do an actual mini-comic (as in mini-sized) with Super Shlump's origin. I could even draw it funny animal style, and then for the larger version (10'x15"), do this other SS story with Zipper and Totie and etc.,  and I could try drawing it more "realistically."

These seem like good creative exercises, because I could then compare drawing styles and see what I think and decide how to proceed further if I do decide to follow through with additional Super Shlump adventures... something I have been thinking about, of course.

Alright, I'll leave it there for now.

More to come, of course.

And...

... FIVE DAYS LEFT UNTIL 2021!!!