Pulp #1

Previews

It's Been Awhile

But don't mistake my radio silence for lack of activity.

Here's a preview of the cover art for the first issue of the graphic novel project I'm working on. It's all charcoal:



The project is called "Who Saw The Deep" and it's a noir cyberpunk. I've written five issues so far, am in the middle of the sixth, and plan for it to be a 15-20 issue series.

Now that I'm starting to ease my focus more toward the art, expect to see more of this materialize soon.

Progress Update: "Who Saw The Deep"

With one issue fully scripted and a second on the verge of being completed, and new concept art rolling in, I thought I might as well take the time to update you on my latest project. It's called "Who Saw The Deep" and it's a 13-issue graphic novel. Think a modern-day city, perhaps only a few years in the future. A cleaned-up corporate sheen everywhere you look. For anyone who's interested in cyberpunk, this is where it begins. We're setting the stage here and now. At the threshold of the world's very first megacorporations.

Okay, so it's not exactly the most relevant topic in light of today's increased government intervention. Or maybe it is. Indulge me. Picture a laissez-faire America run out of control, if you can.

The idea for the story is mostly derived from the one I ran with for Business of Screenwriting. We had to pitch an existing script idea over the course of the semester, so I quickly threw together a very early, rough version of "Who Saw The Deep," which in and of itself was heavily derived from that "Fiends of Nashville" comic Josh and I were developing at the time. Basically, I just felt like doing a film noir ("Fiends" was a western). Mostly for practice. I was using the same character, the same premise, just putting it in a noir context. (I didn't really have any long-term plans for it.)

Well, after Business of Screenwriting was over, I just shelved what was "Who Saw The Deep," with tentative plans to revisit the material sometime in the distant future, perhaps as a novel. Once summer started, I began working on "Fiends" in earnest. Which has currently been put on hold.

Pretty much for the last year and a half, Jake Hollander, this guy I sat next to in my first animation class, had been bugging me to collaborate on a comic. We did a couple of brainstorming sessions here and there, but nothing really stuck. Then, when Josh told me he couldn't make a solid commitment to "Fiends," I turned around and started talking to Jake again. I remember paging through that old "Who Saw The Deep" .pdf while on aim, and I was like, hey, I have about 70 pgs of workable dialogue here that could serve as a foundation for a noir/cyberpunk comic (we're both really into that blend). I was about halfway through writing "Land of Confusion" at the time. He got really excited about the prospect, so I said, let me finish this vampire thing and I'll start revisiting "Who Saw The Deep."

Overcome by a fit of laziness, I felt tempted to basically re-use the "Who Saw The Deep" script for the comic, word-for-word, breaking it into issues where appropriate. Then I started realizing how similar the material was to "Fiends." I mean pretty much same protagonist, exact same relationships explored. And I realized I didn't want to do that all over again. Also it wouldn't be fair to both Josh and I in the event that we would one day get back to work on "Fiends." So I went and overhauled the characters and story completely.

What emerged was the outline for a 13-issue story arc about robot consciousnesses, supercomputers, memory-altering drugs, a conspiracy, the mob, and a nostalgic hard-boiled detective. Basically an attempt to break free of the "Fiends" mold while remaining as close as possible to the original "Who Saw The Deep." Also, bringing in a lot more ideas that Jake and I had been throwing around. And ideas that had been broached in my Business of Screenwriting class, responding to the original idea.

I have to say, I think it's pretty good. And if you know me, you know that's saying something.

Anyway. The first issue is completely scripted, like I said, broken down into a page-by-page, panel-by-panel layout. All that remains is the art. The second issue is also nearly complete. I'm very pleased with how it's turning out so far, and perhaps a little surprised by the relative ease at which it's coming along.

Below is some original concept art by Jake. The first is a drawing of a female character who was cut early on, and exemplifies the Sin City-esque style Jake and I were thinking of running with originally. The next four are all images of our protagonist, Gene Foster, from his earliest to most recent incarnation. (The third one, with the squinty eyes, is actually mine. Jake and I both decided he looked too mean. More like a pissed-off Asian with a Bruce Campbell chin. I decided to throw it up here just for kicks.)





Not sure when you're going to see a finished product. All I can say is, with the winter break right around the corner, Jake and I will have plenty of time to get cracking on the art.

The Voids

All of our actions, the cause and effect of our daily lives, can be traced to loss. An endless series of voids that we attempt to fill in vain--because nothing, that we cling to in this reality, is permanent. Nothing is absolute. We react to the inevitable loss of these impermanent attachments by seeking others to fill the voids left in their wake. The voids can be filled only temporarily, before we experience loss yet again and must seek out new attachments to take their place. Everything that we cling to as human beings--material objects, places, people, ideas--are placeholders. For those of the past and those yet to come. The pursuit of these placeholders is what defines us. Our actions, our choices.

No one of us dwells for too long in the voids, because there is where we find the death of ourselves.

Land of Confusion update

Well, it's finished. Draft 1, that is. And what a draft indeed, at a whopping 173 pages. Nearly a 3-hour movie. Whoops. Which means in order to prepare it for the Written Image contest at the end of this year (which I plan on entering), I have to trim 43 pages. [Insert expletive here]! Not sure how that's gonna happen, but at the moment I don't really give a hoot. The .pdf is saved, tucked away in a safe folder for anybody out of their right mind who wants to take a look, but I'm just going to leave it there, in a digital drawer, for the next month or so while I get to work on my next project.

Which brings me to my next order of business. I'm about to start work on a comic/graphic novel with a friend of mine from the Animation world, Jake Hollander. The idea is something I've been flirting with off-and-on for the last couple years or so, so let's hope I can bring it down off the pedestal like the jar of cookies that it is, cause I'm hungry. Long story short, it's kind of a neo-noir, a dash of cyberpunk to taste, about a detective investigating his own murder. That's about all I care to get into right now, but give me a few days and I'll start to expand on that as I develop the general storyline and the script for the first issue.

Here goes nothing...

"Experience," Part 2

It's been awhile, hasn't it? I've been busy with that "Land of Confusion" script, the first draft of which should be complete any day now. This charcoal portrait's been staring at me from a dejected corner of my room the entire time, and it was only until a couple days ago that I gave in and decided to bust some more of it out. The eyes were really bothering me, as you can see. Fixed them, and started adding white charcoal. I was getting frustrated at first because I haven't worked with it in forever, but then out of nowhere I had a breakthrough and it really started coming together. I'm really pleased with this one, which is definitely saying something for me. Hopefully I'll be posting the finished product soon.