The main focus of this Patreon page is to share the process, including the ups and downs of creating my first comic-novel. Why? Well, as a dreamer, I have spent years going to comic conventions to attend panels from professional artists and writers with the hopes of gathering enough information to pursue my dreams of writing and illustrating my books. I also scoured blogs, podcasts, and artbooks sifting for gold in the sand. But, it has taken me three decades to get to this point. That is thrilling and sobering for me at the same time. Thrilling because I am closer than I have ever been. Sobering, because three decades is a long time to keep a dream alive. But, as God is my witness, I have never let go.
So, what if there was a place where for the entire year you could see the progress and more importantly, the process and strategies for bringing a large project like this to life? Well, search no further.
I have been planning this Kickstarter campaign for a couple of years. The most significant positive impact has been the connection I made with Tyler James at Comixlaunch. He and his large community have given me the last few nuggets of information I was missing, and all for free. He regularly shares a podcast and through his email subscriber list invites subscribers to attend free online streaming events where he shares his strategies as a successful comic book publisher using Kickstarter. His link is below.
A large part of a successful campaign is an informative video. Cringe. I up until recently was not a fan of myself in photos or video. So, to combat that unreasonable fear I found a course on Udemy.com, and even though I am only part of the way through it, it has also provided enough confidence to reach this milestone and film my first video! Alexa Fischer teaches it. Her course link is below. Very inexpensive. Udemy is another great site to subscribe to for emails. They are always running specials, and it is a great way to keep learning new skills affordably.
My steps for the script creation were nothing out of the ordinary. All of the support images are attached.
I am visual, so I started with rough storyboard sketches of how I wanted the video to flow. These should be rough, flexible visual notes for you only. You are merely trying to visualize and capture those thoughts so you can organize them into something final. They should not be pretty or even recognizable to anyone but you.
These served as the basis for a first draft script. This step again is mostly for you, so the formatting is “scripty” not professional. I use Grammarly.com for early drafts of most things I write. I love to write, but I am not a grammar nerd, and it educates me as it offers corrections which have, in turn, made me a more confident writer. There is a free version, and if you sign up for it, you will receive promotional offers. I always base paid subscriptions on a realistic look at how much do I use this service versus how much do I want to use this service. They offer half off subscription promotions, and I took advantage of one of their offers, knowing that I will be writing my tail off this year.
So, after I wrote the first draft, there was a space of perhaps a week before I could get back to it. Time away is significant to writing I have found. When you take a break, even just a few hours, you can see what you wrote clearly and make the necessary changes to keep this moving forward.
When I went back to the script, I noticed that I had done a poor job of communicating, influences, and what was my story.
Influences are essential on Kickstarter, watch any video for a creative campaign, and the authors will say something, like “if you like Jason Bourne movies and Pokemon, this story is for you!” That is not the tone I wanted for my video, because frankly, I don’t know what this story is most like within the sprawling landscape of pop-culture. But, sharing those influences will help a backer determine if this project is for them. So, I added that entire section.
I never explained what the story was partly because I have been neck deep in this story for four years, so I wrongly assume that everyone I speak to is at least ankle deep. So, untrue. I added a very brief synopsis of the story arc. Why brief? The shorter I keep the video, the more likely the viewer is to make it to the end. That is important. I want to hook the viewer with enough to investigate the page and hopefully read the preview.
Here is the second draft,
Title text: Once upon a time…
Title text: Dragons ruled over humanity.
Title text: It had always been this way.
Title text: Until a teenager was born, that could slay them.
(logo comes into focus) Dochas: Birth of the Dragon Girl
Alternate take for opening:
Brian: Yes, that was me on the VO. I’m going all Tom Hanks Polar express, and every voice is me! Hi everyone! I am Brian Delaney, the author, and illustrator of Dochas: Birth of the Dragon Girl. I am so psyched you are interested in my project!
Brian: (sitting in the studio chair, books and computer visible, medium shot) Hi, everyone! I am Brian Delaney, the author, and illustrator of Dochas: Birth of the Dragon Girl. I am so psyched you are interested in my project!
Dochas is a fantasy story taking place during the middle ages in a world similar to ours, but where dragons rule over humankind. The protagonist is a young woman named, Dochas and events beyond her control have transpired that give her a thirst for spilling dragon’s blood. If that were not enough to deal with, she has two families, two names and a bloody destiny that no one would want to fulfill. Oh, and she just turned thirteen. I have crafted a tale that will be easy to identify with, but with extraordinary elements, namely dragons and some other exciting bits, sprinkled throughout the narrative. It is a story about addiction, adoption, growing up, and a quest to discover is she who others say she is, or can she be something else?
VO: (book spines and covers from these and more) I have been an avid reader since I was a wee lad, and this story is the culmination of those influences. Everything from C.S.Lewis’s Narnia books, Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Series have impacted me from adolescence till now. Visually my storytelling style is a mix of European, Japanese, and Western comics. Naoki Urasawa of Monster and 21st Century Boys fame, Katsuhiro Otomo who created Akira with the French legend Moebius and even some Frank Miller and Chuck Dixon round out the short list.
Brian: But, I am getting ahead of myself, yes, I am creating my first ever print comic book, but it is not even a comic book. It is a comic novel.
VO: (graphic screen. comic book and novel combining) A comic-novel takes the visual impact and cinematic storytelling of comic books and the imagination based narrative of a novel and combines them to tell one seamless tale.
VO: (final paragraph from page one narrative, leading to panel 1 and 2 of page 2) The narrative power of prose flowing into the cinematic impact of comic books.
Brian: (close-up, holding a printed prototype) I have been prototyping this book and the format for a couple of years, gathering feedback from a group of beta testers, leading to the preview that I am holding. I further tested the concept by having this prototype on the shelves at my local comic shop, released on a Wednesday with all of the major publishers and it sold out that first week.
VO: (computer, tablet with online version) You can read this prototype online at the link below, for free.
Brian: But, these are prototypes, glimmers of the final work to come. As a professional designer for 30 years, I understand the importance of establishing a solid foundation before layering on the other elements.
VO: (Brian Froud, Faeries book spreads) In my youth, a significant influence was the books of Brian Froud published in the late seventies. I loved the immersive quality of them. The illustrations and text intertwined and drew you in.
Brian: (close-up) With that in mind, here is a first look at what the final pages in my book will resemble.
VO: (digital pages and details) Even in the prototype phase, every illustrated detail tells more of the story, sometimes illuminating the past or a foretelling of some future event. From the lead-in caps to the notes scribbled in the page gutters, everything enhances the tale I am telling.
Brian: (close up) As a bonus to every backer of this book, you are invited to be part of a yearlong journey to create and publish my first comic-novel, documented and shared with you as it is happening. I will share it all, with the hopes that it will entertain and encourage you to go for it and create your own, whatever it is that you have to create!
VO: (video of my describing design as I create, holding a fan of note cards and tossing them in the air, text written and then striked through, wipe from storyboards to pencils, wipe from pencils to inks, wipe from inks to color, 3way screen showing video all at once creating captions, page design, logo creation)
This process will not be like the extras on a Blu-Ray disc. I will share all aspects of this project and my process, including my approach to world building. How I am plotting the story and keeping all of the details captured. My writing process, I will share first, second, and final drafts with commentary. How I storyboard and create rough layouts and how those become final digital pencils. Digital inking and how I select colors and add them. What software do I use for each task and how I go about it.
Brian: Also, the ugly parts of the process. The half-drawn concepts that are good enough for me because I am on a deadline. Where and how am I researching what things look like and how they work. Did I set up my files wrong, what now? Have I written myself into a corner, and might have to chew my left leg off to get out? How much of my process is just winging it? All shared through the backer pages, with links to videos and live stream Q&A’s from apps like Discord.
So, please check out the rewards and thank you again for your interest! This project is going to be awesome! Remember if we are going to move forward, Dragons must die!
END
Now that I had a second draft that I was happy with I sent it to a writer friend to read “cold” with the hopes he could offer any writing wisdom and make sure everything made sense and that nothing was unclear. Getting someone to read this thing “cold” means that they have no idea what you are trying to accomplish. They have not been a part of this aspect of the project and can view it as an outsider. Does it have to be a writer? No. But, in my opinion, it should be someone that will shoot straight with you and is not entirely ignorant of what you are trying to accomplish. When I use the word “ignorant,” I am using it in this context as defined,
“lacking knowledge, information, or awareness about a particular thing.
“they were ignorant of astronomy.”
My writing friend shot back a version that “smoothed some of the transitions and made things clearer.” I read over the changes and agreed with most of them, and that became my final draft.
Here are my friend’s edit and the final draft we shot.
Dochas is a fantasy story taking place during the middle ages in a world similar to ours, but where dragons rule over humankind. The protagonist is a young woman named, Dochas and events beyond her control have transpired that give her an unquenchable thirst for spilling dragon’s blood. If that were not enough to deal with, she has two families, two names and a bloody destiny that no one would want to fulfill. Oh, and she just turned thirteen. I have crafted a tale that will be easy to identify with, but features extraordinary elements, like dragons and other exciting bits, sprinkled throughout the narrative. It is a story about addiction, adoption, growing up, and a quest to discover if Dochas will follow the path others have set before her, or if she will forge her own destiny.
VO: (book spines and covers from these and more) I have been an avid reader since I was a wee lad, and this story is the culmination of those influences. Everything from C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales, and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Series have impacted me from adolescence till now. Visually my storytelling style is a mix of European, Japanese, and Western comics. Naoki Urasawa of Monster and 21st Century Boys fame, Katsuhiro Otomo who created Akira with the French legend Moebius and even some Frank Miller and Chuck Dixon round out the short list.
Brian: But, I am getting ahead of myself, yes, I am creating my first ever print comic book, but it is not even a comic book. It is a comic novel.
VO: (graphic screen. comic book and novel combining) A comic-novel takes the visual impact and cinematic storytelling of comic books and the imagination based narrative of a novel and combines them to tell one seamless tale.
VO: (final paragraph from page one narrative, leading to panel 1 and 2 of page 2) The narrative power of prose flowing into the cinematic impact of comic books.
Brian: (close-up, holding a printed prototype) I have been prototyping this book and the format for a couple of years, gathering feedback from a group of fellow artists, leading to the preview that I am holding. I further tested this preview by holding a trial run on the shelves of my local comic shop. The preview was released on a Wednesday, and even when competing against all of the other major publishers, it sold out within the first week.
VO: (computer, tablet with online version) You can read this prototype online for free using the link below.
Brian: Keep in mind that this is just the prototype. Only a glimmer of the final work to come. As a professional designer for 30 years, I understand the importance of establishing a solid foundation before layering on the other elements.
VO: (Brian Froud, Faeries book spreads) In my youth, a significant influence was the books of Brian Froud published in the late seventies. I loved the immersive quality of them. The illustrations and text intertwined and drew you in to the world he created.
Brian: (close-up) With that in mind, here is a first look at what the final pages in my book will resemble.
VO: (digital pages and details) Even in the prototype phase, every illustrated detail tells more of the story, sometimes illuminating the past, sometimes foretelling a future event. From the lead-in caps to the notes scribbled in the page gutters, every element enhances the tale I am telling.
Brian: (close up) As a bonus to every backer of this book, you are invited to be part of a yearlong journey to create and publish my first comic-novel, documented and shared with you as it is happening. I will share it all, with the hopes that it will entertain and encourage you to go for it and create whatever it is that you have to create!
VO: (video of my describing design as I create, holding a fan of note cards and tossing them in the air, text written and then striked through, wipe from storyboards to pencils, wipe from pencils to inks, wipe from inks to color, 3way screen showing video all at once creating captions, page design, logo creation)
This process will not be like the extras on a Blu-Ray disc. I will share all aspects of this project and my process, including my approach to world building. How I am plotting the story and keeping all of the details captured. My writing process, I will share first, second, and final drafts with commentary. How I storyboard and create rough layouts and how those become final digital pencils. Digital inking and how I select colors and add them. I’ll even share what software I use for each task and how I go about it.
Brian: Keep in mind, this is real life. Things don’t always go as planned. I will also be sharing the ugly parts of the process. The half-drawn concepts that are good enough for me because I am on a deadline. The process I use to research what things look like and how they work. If I set up my files wrong, what now? Have I written myself into a corner? Will I have to chew my left leg off to get out? How much of my process is just winging it? All of these details are shared through the backer pages, with links to videos and live stream Q&A’s from apps like Discord.
So, please check out the rewards and thank you again for your interest! This project is going to be awesome! Remember if we are going to move forward, Dragons must die!
END
While shooting the video I also, made some edits in the teleprompt app, here are the edited sections. As I was reading it aloud, trying my best to sound at ease, some of the word choices were awkward, so after a couple takes of fumbling the words, I rewrote it on the prompter.
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I have been prototyping this book and the format for a couple of years, gathering feedback from a group of fellow artists, leading to this preview. I further tested this preview by holding a trial run on the shelves of my local comic shop. The preview was released on a Wednesday, and even when competing against all of the other major publishers, it sold out within the first week.
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More on the storyboard, shooting the video and editing to come!
If this was a blessing to you, please let me know!
Later!
Links,
https://pro.comixlaunch.com/
https://www.udemy.com/share/100F3uB0IacVtWRng=/?xref=E0UacF5XQX8FSWUuAAcqP1kSWSRM
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