First, I’m doing a livestream (yes, it will be me) this Thursday at 1 PM EST regarding these graphic novels, my writing process, plus stuff about sci-fi and fantasy in the modern era, and a whole bunch of other really cool nerd shit that you’ll really like if you’re into that kind of thing.
Full Q&A also. It’s going to be so fucking fun, I can’t wait.
Link to the livestream is here: https://vimeo.com/event/5873385 so mark your calendar. I’m doing it on Vimeo instead of YouTube to keep things separate.
(And if you want to be notified of these events regarding my new comic books / graphic novels, go here and join the list.)
Now, I’ll talk about how writing graphic novels is different than writing a novel or short stories, which is what I’m more accustomed to.
One of the advantages of writing a graphic novel series is that I can tell story elements through the visuals in ways I can’t with a novel.
For example, in the Black Dragon and Pink Firefly graphic novels (we’re going to release them in early May), the character of Pink Firefly looks like this:
She has big eyes like a Disney character or princess to denote innocence. She has hair down to her heels to denote hyper-femininity. She has larger-than-average breasts to denote sexuality, but she has skinny legs, a skinny waist, and a smaller butt to indicate that perhaps she’s not the kind of woman you’d want to have five children with.
The second most important female character, at least in the first two or three graphic novels of the story, is Baby Zorra. She is very different from Pink Firefly in both personality and bearing, so she has to look different to reflect this.
She has blonde hair like Pink Firefly (because Black Dragon is loosely based on me so he likes blondes), but that’s where the similarities end.
Baby Zorra has boobs, but not the big boobs that Pink Firefly has. Baby Zorra is much shorter (elves in this world are much smaller than humans) and has very large hips, thighs, and butt.
Baby Zorra is a much more confident character than Pink Firefly, so her body is more sturdy-looking and solid, despite the fact that she’s short. She has golden eyes with stars inside them that are more intense and less inviting than Pink Firefly’s innocent, large brown eyes, again denoting an edge to her that Pink Firefly doesn’t have.
For consistency reasons, I have to make sure that Baby Zorra’s body and eyes always look like this all the time, even when she has moments of sadness or weakness, like here:
Or when she isn’t doing something very exciting, like here:
The difference in their two bodies is more apparent when you see them together in the same shot, like here:
If I do my job as the writer of these stories, I can make you view certain characters in certain ways, positively or negatively, just from their appearance alone.
I can also ensure that the female characters, even if they’re all attractive, have very distinctive-looking faces and bodies.
I do that so as to appeal to all types of men regardless of what “type” they’re attracted to, since this is a graphic novel series written for men.
For example, here’s an example of a third woman who looks and acts nothing like Pink Firefly or Baby Zorra:
This is Olyndris, and once again, every aspect of her look is there for specific reasons. The smartass facial expressions, the sexy outfit, the freckles on her face, the perky and higher boobs, all of these things are there to make you view her a certain way, even if she never had any dialogue.
So that’s how I can make you like someone or view someone in a certain way, but what if I want you to dislike someone?
Here’s an example of how I can do that with visuals:
Other than the bat, there are three characters in this image. All three of them get equal focus. All three of them look tough and intimidating. But all three of them are not the same.
Two of these characters look pretty cool, but one of them looks a little off.
Which ones are which, do you think?
If I did my job correctly, you should think the woman in the middle looks pretty cool, and the guy with the red armor on the right also looks pretty cool. The guy on the left wearing the purple outfit looks a little weird, perhaps even dumb.
He looks… off. He almost looks naked.
That’s by design.
This might be a minor spoiler, but the guy in the purple outfit I want the reader to dislike strongly over the course of his character arc. I can’t tell you why right now; you’ll see why when you read the story.
Whereas the other two characters I want you to think are pretty cool, even though they are both antagonists (or are they?).
(FYI, this is a rough draft panel, so when you see it in the graphic novel, it’s actually going to look even better because there are a few mistakes in there that will be fixed by then.)
Throughout the course of the story (and it’s a very large story), I want you to like certain characters, dislike certain characters, and be confused about other characters. I can do this using visuals in ways I can’t while writing a novel.
There are times I want you to think antagonists are cool even though they’re antagonists. But there will be other times when I want you to think antagonists are horrible and make you want them to die.
I’m not saying I can’t make characters likable or unlikable in a novel or short story. Of course I can.
I’m saying that I have this extra tool of visual imagery to reinforce what you believe a character is or should be.
I can also convey other character traits with minimal dialogue, like here (ignore the dialogue and just look at the image first):
And here with no dialogue whatsoever:
What do you think the woman in white (Sylwen) is thinking as she looks at the queen? Now look at Black Dragon’s facial expression. What do you think he’s thinking?
Yeah.
The character of Black Dragon isn’t immune to this visual storytelling either. In his armor, he looks cool and tough, but when he takes his armor off, like in this scene when he’s just had sex with Pink Firefly, he looks like this:
He doesn’t have a six-pack or flat stomach like other comic book heroes do. He’s got a chubby belly that he likes to scratch as he walks around his other companions while almost naked, not giving a fuck.
He’s outcome independent all over the place, again, even if he had no dialogue.
More articles on my writing and design process are coming soon. I love this stuff so much.
If you want a lot more detail, you can join us for the livestream on Thursday.