Contacted a number of printers, trying to contact mainly ones that I knew shipped directly to Diamond distribution 'hubs'. Didn't get a chance to call some of the ones I wanted to and probably will not get a chance to today, so hopefully Thursday.
Now for the fun stuff; building the structure of the Zombie Dinosaur world. I'm still going with the fungus idea, and the idea that zombie dinosaurs are what caused the extinction. To me this means I can do the comic a number of ways:
- 1) (My Favorite so far) Dinosaurs had an existing society much like ours, and their civilization falls when the zombie outbreak occurs. 4 intrepid dino-surviors must figure a way out of the dino-city. I'd play this one straight, pretending to ignore the ludicrousness of the story, and go for a realistic style. This style will take longer to draw which is a down side.
- 2) Comedy: using a cartoon style, I'd play up the wackiness on this one. Dinos still talk, and possibly have a society like the one above (the old 'sitcom' "Dinosaurs" comes to mind). The cartoon style means I can pencil the pages faster, but the down side is its more of an obvious joke. Not necessarily a bad thing.
- 3) (2nd favorite) would be a very 'realistic' depiction of the scenario, done as a 'silent' comic (A silent comic is one with no dialog) There would probably be one 'protagonist' and it would be a dino trying to escape the jungle/forest/what have you, where the 'fungal' outbreak has occurred (Thinking an Velicoraptor or Allosaurus due to their speed, and ability to fight, and there natural 'cool' factor).
- 4) Set in modern day, a group of archeologists on a fossil 'hunt' discover what they think is whole remains of a large group of dinosaurs, preserved in a volcanic creator. The archeologists quickly package and ship them to 'the city' for 'scientific research'. Soon the zombie dinosaurs rise from the dead and create havoc (Meaning you could have zombies and zombie dinosaurs in one comic)! Plus how scary is something you have to kill with a headshot, when it's head is 6 feet wide and the brain is the size of a walnut.
Already getting suggestions for characters which is great, and most work with option 1 or 2 (not so much with 3 or 4-although the Bear Sniper is great). As always I want readers to have input in this creation process, so let me know what you guys think of the above concepts, and after some thought I'll really get this ball rolling!
Porro ago silenti etc dinosaurs!
1. Definitely a good way to go, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of 2.
3 would be a challenge, I'm sure -- but has the potential to cross-over into a deep, intense product, which could be awesome. Could be the best, but I think this would be the most time-consuming, potentially obsessive in its scope, as you walk around with tissue boxes for shoes and fingernails the length of an apatosaurus's neck.
4. Very practical, and seems like this could be very commercial (which is a good thing).
No matter how realistic you try to do the comic, it's still talking dinosaurs and zombies. The comedy aspect is there regardless. Though, I'm a big fan of subtle humor--rather than magnifying the hilarity of talking zombie dinosaurs, playing it off in a more realistic fashion, as though the scenario is completely plausible. I don't know if that means you necessarily HAVE to draw it uber realistic in a sense. Like you said, the 'Dinosaurs' show type setting or (if anyone other than me remembers) the cartoon 'Thunder Lizards' which had 3 military-esque dinos in the jungle. Modern civilization set thousands of years ago...with zombies! It's a winner in my book. And zombies causing extinction is sheer brilliance.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys, great input! The feedback really helps clarify the direction in my head. Again, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ashley - the humor aspect is built in so I would not go with the over the top, beat you over the head, aspect of a humorous take.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with NJA - option 3 is interesting but very time consuming, maybe not the best choice for this.
1 & 4 are the options I like best and in each of those you can inject comic relief as needed.
*Wilford the vegan dino is a silly idea and best fits with option 2, but maybe you can salvage him somehow.
Perhaps his vegan choice helped him fight off the total control of the zombie fungi?