pulp fiction and eighties cartoons

I've decided that the influences that I've had and ultimate vision that i want to portray is gonna be less like Lord of the Rings or other traditional high fantasy and a lot more like pulp fiction fantasy and eighties cartoons.

This realization came to me as i was viewing an exhibit of pulp fiction magazine covers at the school gallery. These magazines from the thirties and forties were all the rage for a generation of people who needed their fantasy or mystery fix before radio and tv. They were fantastic, over the top, chintzy, and campy but their stylized, colorful, out of this world style is something unique and contains elements of what i want my graphic novel to be.

Another of my main influences comes from the cartoons of my youth, during the late eighties and early nineties when fantasy was really popular. Many of these shows were ridiculous and cheesy beyond belief, but many of them contained artwork and design layouts that were beautiful and strange, and compared to cheap computer based cartoons of today, very artistic and refreshing. Shows like thundercats, HeMan, Pirates of Dark Water, and many more were influencial on me as a boy and their artistic, weird worlds contain elements of space and fantasy that i want my Shedyra project to achieve.

Did you watch these shows or have you seen these magazines? Do you think this is a fun idea?

Now more than Ever

Boy... another several weeks of trying to find cool graphic novels that don't contain sex, nudity, profanity, or gore to no avail. I am sure now more than ever that i need to "Write the books i want to read" so to speak, and fill that niche that desperately needs to be filled. I am hoping that other artists and writers with similar values will join the cause. Someday, there may be many graphic novels to choose from that would be exciting and cool as well as safe. It's not like a graphic novel must contain adult content because they can... look at movies. Lord of the Rings is one of the best fantasy movies ever made and while it is violent and scary for some people, there is no profanity or nudity or anything. That stuff is not necessary to tell an amazing story with incredible monsters, wars, characters, locations, magic, or whatever.

I guess i needed to rant a little. 

Mythical Beasties

This week i've been thinking a lot about mythological animals and the ways they're represented in movies, comics, books, and games. What got me on this topic was playing World of Warcraft, noticing how they use a lot of traditional mythic beasts, but with some at least, they put an original spin on them. This got me thinking about how one of my favorite pasttimes growing up was drawing dinosaurs, monsters, dragons, and other creatures that i made up. For a long time i developed personal versions of "Cliche" or "traditional" beasts, (ie dragon, gryphon, pegasus, elf...) But the ones i really enjoyed were the ones i personally created. I'm not opposed to people using established creatures- on the contrary, there is a reason why such beasts have been in folklore for centuries and the can often be a terrific springboard for one's development with art or writing. It just seems that for my part, i want to be inspired by these imaginary and also real world creatures to form my own, alien fauna, that is, establish original creatures as unique fixtures in my mythos. There are downsides to this, such as the implied description. When you say "a gryphon attacks", you dont HAVE to explain "which is a large, lion-like animal with the face and wings of an eagle". Most people have a rough idea what that means by the mere word. If i say "a Geyrm attacks," the reader has no clue what im talking about. It could be a beast more terrifying and cool-looking than a gryphon but who knows? Luckily, graphic Novel allows for me to show things rather than explain them, but still.... its a little risky. What do you all think? Should i stay true to my original beasties or go with the classics?

thinking in terms of GRAPHIC NOVEL

Its really interesting when one thing changes your entire thought process. As soon as i started thinking about Shedyra in the graphic novel context, suddenly the story started streching out and branching episodes like it was a plant stalk growing in fast forward. Suddenly the story threads started falling into episodic harmony and i suddenly have new characters and adventures coming alive as they all spin around the vortex that is the Shedyra Mythos. Granted, I havent had a lot of time to think about this lately, but the off times have been an idea factory lately. Im also beginning to imagine how certain battles or scenes could be shown visually in the story as a much more dynamic experience than writing plain text and counting on the words to paint the picture. That can work even better than art if its the right words, but drawing things personally is going to be fun.

Graphic Novel

Ok out there... the votes have been cast and I'm all in favor of doing my mythos as a graphic novel. I have been thinking about this for months and months and the conclusion is that because my work is so visually heavy and my story is so colorful and artistic it deserves to be shown and told.

That being said, I have been working on 'graphic=izing' my characters so they take on a slightly less realistic persona into a more cartoon comic style. My style i am going for is going to be  somewhat simplistic and colorful but still dynamic and interesting. Hopefully with Photoshop and a few more classes i can work it up to the level that it needs to be. Does anyone have any books or sites they recommend to graphic novel production?

I have enough characters and story for years of graphic novels if only i can do it right. And yes, they will have christian standards. The world definitely needs more wholesome graphic novels, dont you agree?