Initial Ideas

So here's what I've got, ideas-wise:

1.) My first endeavor, really only being written as an attempt to get my feet wet with this new concept, is an adaptation of a kind of 'gangster' short story I wrote a few years ago, "The Bastard Clay Cavalier." The story was only about 15 pages long and sufferred from misguided attempts to establish setting. I intend to flesh out some scenes and characters a bit more and this will likely turn into a short, probably 3-4 issue mini-series.

2.) A superhero story playing on the idea of a 'super-soldier' serum. I had the germ of this idea a few years ago and then read Warren Ellis' amazing No Hero, which unfortunately shared a lot of the same concepts I had come up with (not to compare myself to Warren Ellis; I think Black Summer and No Hero are some of the best superhero stories that've been told in the last decade), although the themes were significantly different. I have two ideas on how to differentiate my story from No Hero, and might even try them both out through the full script stage, just to get a better idea of how I feel about each of them.

3.) Finally, the primary reason I started this blog, is an experiment on genre comics. I've always been a huge film buff and most of the comic ideas I've had in recent history have been directly influenced by some of my favorite films and filmmakers. That being said, I'm a pretty big fan of genre film, and found it really interesting that Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai, when adapted for american audiences, was turned into a western, the Magnificent Seven. So, I intend to write an outline based on a western idea I have, heavily influenced by the work of the late, great Sergio Leone, and then use that outline to write both a western book and a samurai book, which itself will likely be heavily influenced by Kurosawa. The western will take place during the American Civil War and the samurai story will take place during the Heiji Rebellion, using the same basic plot.

I'll post progress on these ideas as they come to fruition and will likely post some scans of pages I might draw up as well. I find I tend to develop ideas visually first, which helps me develop the language around them. So, I'll sometimes draw out character sketches or sequentual pages just to get a sense of character or pacing.

Stay tuned,
-Aaron J.