Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Some ideas...

While continuing to work on refining/finding my drawing style, I have been thinking about the narrative of the stories themselves. I find myself heading toward one over-arching story, told over several short episodes, and probably concerning some kind of event being held at the football club. The event might be a week long soccer tournament, an invitational perhaps, with a few other clubs in the city. The stories can follow a few characters (from the new club) as they play/watch and interact with members of the other clubs. A common thread will link each character, and therefore each story. The common thread will have to come back to the club itself, its role in the community and its physical presence. I am starting to kind of see it as a Jr. Jays comic. The comics were handed out to children by police officers in schools in the 90s. They always had some kind of message in them, like the one pictured above, warning kids not to smoke.
Meanwhile, I have also started to re-think the format of the graphic stories. I still very much like the Featherproof mini-books idea, but I have also been thinking of adding some supplements to that. Trading cards, like the baseball or hockey cards you trade and collect as a kid, as supplementary, maybe promotional items for the short stories. Or a map, like one of those cheesy tourist maps with little axonometric images of key buildings, except this map would be of my club, kind of as a guide to the short stories. Maybe the map can even double as a board game, in combination with the trading cards as added incentive to collect the cards.... Just a few ideas while I continue to work on drawing.