Saturday, May 28, 2011

Day 19: Lesson Learned (CC)

So I learned a decent lesson today, which ironically is one I should have learned before.  See years ago I was working on a comic, "Abraham Lincoln; Zombie Hunter" which I stopped because it turned out there was 3 or 4 comics and book, and a movie (which should be out soon), I didn't want to look like I was just copying someone's idea.  When I started this project I did some quick research and it looked like there were maybe one or two similar projects but nothing dead on.  Should have done better research.  In fact I was looking at Newsarama and it looks like Larry Young may be doing a book called 'Zombie Dinosaur'. . .crap.  If you've read previous posts you know I really like the AiT guys, and definitely don't want to step on any toes, especially as I really respect the work they put out.

Now I'm not going to stop, don't get me wrong. I'll have to put the comic out under a different name, maybe "Dawn of the Dead Dinosaurs" or "Evil Dead Dinosaurs", etc. But I should have done more research.  I figured since I hadn't heard any info on Zombie Dinosaurs comics and couldn't initially find anything much on the subject it would be unique. With Kirkman's 'Super Dinosaur' already on the shelves, I run the risk of looking like someone that can't come up with original concepts.

And I think that speaks to a fear of artists/writers, etc. to create something, and it's not original, or worse look like a rip off artist.  One of the reasons I liked the conceit of Zombisaurs is that it's wacky, weird, not something you hear of every day. I think my presentation is going to be fairly unique, but still it's annoying to arrive on a project a day late.

So the leason today kids is do a LOT of research before starting on a project, no matter how hot to trot you are.

Even though I'm stuck at work today (day/pay job) I should be able to put up a decent post a bit later.

-T

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