I write Comics...Somewhat professionally, and I want this!

[BCVSAuthorMW]

It's been a while since my last post and there were questions as to my authenticity and such. I would love to adapt Animorphs to graphic novel format, I will include a pdf of my first published comic (which is now out of print due to a request from my new publisher who wants a few changes in artistic direction) in raw form since i no longer have the colored pages, and a sample of my most recent script for Tragic Entertainment. my resume isn't long in the comics yet, but hopefully with time and gigs with dedicated fan bases like this, it will get longer.

Now who's in charge?

What direction is this going to go?
Outright, blow by blow from the book to the page transcription, or slightly different, more like a book to movie or book to graphic novel adaptation? there are several transcription style comics being done via deviant art and that requires no scripting at all, just page layouts, but if you want something with a little flair like LOTR from books to movies or
Planet of the Apes (the original), then You need a script. I've been working on scripting these books for a while now, and as an adult who grew up in that time period, I think i do the books justice.

Who's doing artwork, and how?
By this i mean are we gonna have one person do pencils, one on inks, one on colors, one on letters, even go so far as one on backgrounds and one on covers, or is it gonna be a one person show? Do you want help getting there?

Is it paid?
Probably not, but a successful kickstarter will get the funds needed to go forward, and money will get you what you need when it comes to artists, the good ones are notorious for demanding pay even when its their dream project and its not really going to make a profit.

Heck, I'll be glad to act as just a consultant on the project to get this thing going.

I've actually spoken with Katherine Applegate and Michael Reynolds about getting a comic done, but scholastic didn't seem interested and no one knew who held the rights in regard to adaptations so the project died.

Since this is going in for fair use and not for profit then i think it shouldn't have any issues.

[BCVSAuthorMW]

web pages for tragic entertainment, kinda the big umbrella i do all my current work for

https://www.facebook.com/TragicEnt

http://www.tragic-entertainment.com/
not up to date yet

http://www.zazzle.com/tragic_ent

[NateSean]

The trouble is that it's been a whole year since you made that first thread. So in that time, you've had plenty of opportunities to try to prove your trustworthiness by showing samples of your own work or trying to save face.

I'm not saying you don't have a genuine interest in this, but when a group of people post doubts to my stuff, it doesn't take me a year to try to convince them otherwise. You're still trying to get other people to do the legwork for something you allegedly want. When the fact is that there are plenty of people on this site that could do both the writing and the drawing.

As to an Animorphs: Graphic Novel being a time worthy goal, that is up to the Grants and Scholastic, who I believe still hold the rights to it. Kick starters have funded fan projects, certainly, but the whole idea behind a kick starter for something like a fan novel is that it has to be geared towards a fandom that a sizable chunk of people want to contribute to.

A Firefly fanfilm was made possible because an epic ton of people still want to see Firefly continue in some way shape or form. Plus, the creators and people who worked on Firefly gave verbal and written support of the idea and that's what gave it the spine it needed to walk on it's own two feet. An author and comic artist wanted to create a Sherlock Holmes project with the titular Holmes and Watson portrayed as African Americans, which is awesome and it works because Sherlock Holmes is essentially public domain now and people want to see more Sherlock.

You take all of those logistical problems and you have to ask yourself if the final product is worth the time and effort that went into it. Then you have to ask yourself, "Would I want to share the burden with twenty other people who may or may not put the same amount of effort into it, or, would I rather do all of the work myself and get all of the credit?"

I know I'm kind of rambling here. But I just want you to understand the reality of the matter. That is that even if you were the most trustworthy person on the face of the Earth, none of the information you have provided on top of the year of silence that greeted our questions in your last thread, makes me confident that you are the person to work with in pulling off this kind of project off.

I hope you learn from this. Maybe you'll put this on a back burner and spend some time contributing to the site in a positive way that makes people gain more confidence in you. Actions do speak louder than words.

[BCVSAuthorMW]

I did post links to the companies I was contracted with. A simple email would have verified my claims. I worked on seven titles and several issues, but now that I'm done with my end, it's up to the publisher to do what they want with it. I cannot post the scripts as per my contract and if you go to the Tragic face book page you can find the covers of a handful of them like Black Phoenix, FX, Quany, and Altregard (my baby which sadly died a slow painful death due to artist conflicts, the artist shuffle that can kill any project, and my ego involving my baby). Then there comes the simple lack of interest I saw. I won't lie, I got discouraged, but the cease and desist killed it and I may or may not attempt a serious professional take on The Animorphs in the future after I make a name for myself. As it is, I'm unknown in the industry. I will have to satisfy myself with letting my scripts fall into fan fiction and I still plan to put the scripts out there when I'm happy with them. My writing has come a long, long, way since I started this effort. I think my insistence on putting pirates of some kind into everything I wrote may have held me back in the past. Now I'm more focused on character driven work and Animorphs fits that, but there is simply not a large enough audience for it, else it would have come to be.


In short, the project had a lot of well wishers, I even got one page of artwork out of it, but when I sent it off to scholastic, my publisher got the cease and desist and I lost all support for the project. The project is dead on the professional front and while my scripts are far and away better than the fan comics that are out there now, there is just no audience for it. I did not want to fall into the blow by blow book to comic transfer that many seem to prefer doing.

While I remain a dedicated fan, it will take some serious effort to get scholastic behind the idea of Animorph comics and the community is just not large or vocal enough. It's too niche.

Then again, maybe my take is not appropriate in the eyes of scholastic.

[NateSean]

I really think your approach of not participating in the forum more is what's killing your success rate. Our conversation is spanning nearly a year now and we're not distant lovers separated by time and space.

You'd had 8 posts in the entire time you've been here and that's not a sign of someone who wants to earn the trust of a potential business partner. Actually building relationships within the forum by regularly participating would be the way to do that.