and.. I'm sorry for double comment, but that second page with the prophet as the key design element and such amazing character. Everything is told there without any reading needed. WOW!!
Congratulations on this excellent work, Mark. These pages set out such a strong premise that I could imagine the story being re-presented as a TV show, or even a stage play; there's such an involving sense of a stage being swiftly and effectively defined, and the procession of characters across the set was charming. I could immediately understand the rules of where I was while never feeling that I was seeing a re-run of an over-familiar piece. Good stuff, Mark. I would buy it, I really would. Let's hope we get the chance to do so sooner or later.
Thanks, everyone! In particular, a note to Colin...
I'm pleased you zeroed in the "stage-setting" aspect. This was actually a deliberate reaction to the entries I'd been seeing in the previous rounds of the Zuda contest; the contest entries seemed really heavy on "mystery" plots, where the eight intro pages serve mainly to introduce a bunch of puzzles and questions, in hopes that you'll vote for a continuation in order to find out what's going on. Not a bad hook, but I felt it was getting a little repetitive.
So my goal here was to take the opposite approach - to try and lay as many of my plot cards on the table as possible, so that eight pages into the story you already know all the important parts of the premise (and it's a fairly standard one!) and the question is less "what's going on?" and more "what are these specific characters going to do about it?"
A little bit of overthinking, perhaps, but your reaction suggests that it worked. I think that alone made it a worthwhile experiment, even if the original venue is no more. Thanks!
2009 graduate of the Academy of Art University. Currently juggling comics, teaching, and giant robot consulting. All images copyright 2016 Mark Simmons.
7 comments:
Looks just as awesome as last time, but now with words! The shapes are amazingly solid. At least you know how to do horizontal pages now.
Wow Mark. Please go on =]
Infinite praise to this that will be THE awesomeness.
and.. I'm sorry for double comment, but that second page with the prophet as the key design element and such amazing character. Everything is told there without any reading needed. WOW!!
Congratulations on this excellent work, Mark. These pages set out such a strong premise that I could imagine the story being re-presented as a TV show, or even a stage play; there's such an involving sense of a stage being swiftly and effectively defined, and the procession of characters across the set was charming. I could immediately understand the rules of where I was while never feeling that I was seeing a re-run of an over-familiar piece. Good stuff, Mark. I would buy it, I really would. Let's hope we get the chance to do so sooner or later.
Thanks, everyone! In particular, a note to Colin...
I'm pleased you zeroed in the "stage-setting" aspect. This was actually a deliberate reaction to the entries I'd been seeing in the previous rounds of the Zuda contest; the contest entries seemed really heavy on "mystery" plots, where the eight intro pages serve mainly to introduce a bunch of puzzles and questions, in hopes that you'll vote for a continuation in order to find out what's going on. Not a bad hook, but I felt it was getting a little repetitive.
So my goal here was to take the opposite approach - to try and lay as many of my plot cards on the table as possible, so that eight pages into the story you already know all the important parts of the premise (and it's a fairly standard one!) and the question is less "what's going on?" and more "what are these specific characters going to do about it?"
A little bit of overthinking, perhaps, but your reaction suggests that it worked. I think that alone made it a worthwhile experiment, even if the original venue is no more. Thanks!
I agree with all the above: just as awesome as the first group of pages! These are seriously awesome...I can't wait to see more!!
The format is also really interesting - such original compositions! :)
These pages are lookin' good, Mark!
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