This is an experiment intended to help me get this blog back on track. I have no idea if it will be successful, and I somehow doubt it, but I want to try: Can I, with no other help than my own imagination, come up with a hundred decent comic ideas in a hundred days? I start today, which means to fulfill my goal I have to have a hundred updates by June 24. I’ll give it a go.
I assume most of them will be plot ideas, but some of these ideas will also be ideas on new ways to make comics. And I haven’t read all the comics in the world, so I assume that some of these ideas will already be in use somewhere. If they are, I trust that you will let me know in the comments where to find them.
Idea #1: The comics tree collab
(The title is awful and should be replaced, but it’s the best I could come up with.)
This isn’t an idea for a comic. It’s an idea for an experimental new way to create comics. It’s not how you would write a regular comic book script – when writing comics, you normally know how the story is supposed to end. In the comics tree collab, you won’t, as the ending will be written by an entirely different person.
“Wait,” you’re probably saying, “are you talking about just drawing a page, and then passing it on to someone else, who draws a new page, and they pass it on to someone who draws the third page? That’s not a new idea! I’ve done that! Many times!”
Yeah, I’m sure you have. But here’s the twist.
Yes, the idea consists in one person drawing a page of a comic and uploading it to a web server where some reader is given the job of picking up where the artist left off, and drawing the next page. But what if there wasn’t just one “next page”?
What if I wrote a page of comics, and then five different people were given the opportunity of continuing the story?
Heck, what if unlimited different people were given the opportunity of continuing the story?
Let’s say that webcartoonist Alpha writes page 1 of our story. Alpha uploads this page to the server, and depending on how the website would work he would probably add some settings to it, create a new project and give the story a title.
Webcartoonist Bravo checks the website and reads Alpha’s page. Bravo has some ideas on how the plot could continue, so he writes a page 2, and uploads it to the website. Later, webcartoonist Charlie checks the website and has some ideas on how Bravo’s plot could continue, so he writes a page 3 and uploads it to the website. Okay, that’s how a collaboration to write a comic usually works, nothing new yet.
But let’s say that the next cartoonist to visit the website, Delta, has another idea to how Alpha’s plot could continue. Delta chooses to make a new page two of this story, and uploads this after Alpha’s page. Now, when the next reader (which following the phonetical alphabet would be Echo) visits the website and clicks on Alpha’s page, he or she will see that the story branches from there and that there are two possible ways to continue. If Echo wants to collaborate, he or she can now choose whether to continue on Charlie’s page or Delta’s page, or create yet another branch off of Alpha’s or Bravo’s page.
And obviously, if Alpha wants to create a new page in reply to Charlie’s page, he can do that. Or, if Echo wants to write TWO pages following each other, that’s possible, but if Bravo or Foxtrot or anyone else wants to break in and write a succession to Echo’s first page and not the second, that’s possible too.
It’s basically a combination of a bunch of people creating a comic together and choose-your-own-adventure. I think that making a comic in this way could be a very interesting experience.
99 ideas to go! Let me know what you think in the comments.
A really interesting idea. Maybe this feature should be available in the new version of Nettserier.no? Or maybe you should make an entirely new website built around this concept before anyone else does. I would’ve liked to see how it could turn out, actually, in one way or another.
I think something like this would be too special for implementing in Nettserier.no. I guess I *could* make a new website based on this concept – I need a better name first, though. “Comics tree collab” is a bit clunky.
I like this idea, but I’m worried that Sturgeon’s Law might come into effect and bury the high quality updates.
I think it might be a good idea to put some sort of voting system into effect; so that when the readers are presented with the list of possible ways to move foward, the highest ranked options are at the top of the list.
Yes, I agree, Matthew. In my example there were five or six people making updates, but should it become bigger than that, of course one would need a voting system.
Not sure if I ever heard about Sturgeon’s Law before, thanks for mentioning it. I agree with him, there *is* a lot of crud out there.
Actually, some sort of play on the phrase “Sturgeon’s Law” might be a good title for the project. A quick Wikipedia search gives two Sturgeon’s Laws
The first is: “Nothing is always absolutely so”.
The second, and more famous, is: “Ninety percent of everything is crud.”
The first would apply to the dendritic structure where any page can be branched off into any number of possible continuations, and the second would apply to the likely end result
Hi, this sounds very much like my webcomic project Infinity on 30 Credits a Day (http://www.infinityon30credits.net/). It started with great promise and good intentions, but quickly became unwieldy. I’d like to give it another go, but it needs better back end programming to make the site navigable.
Thanks for the tip, I will definitely have a look at it.
Awesome indeed. I have been looking for this information.