Your Own Graphic Novel

[SuperMonkey]

Another one:

This one was conceived while driving home from a Motley Crue concert. I nearly crashed the car three times trying to write it all down on a napkin.


The Saints (or The Saints of Los Angeles)

Think standard mob/mafia story. Not sure about the timeframe, but it occurs as the mafia spreads west. The powerful San Marco (Saint Mark) family lays dibs on Los Angeles, and a bitter turf war erupts with several rival families.

The main inspiration was the Godfather, removing the stereotype of the big, bad mafiosos, and going closer to the real mob, as it was founded in Sicily.

-- FunBob

 

[xisaacx]

I suggest stay away from heroes, villains and all things tights related. You paint yourself into a box. Anyone that's broken out in the industry as an indie writer at first really didn't do it with hero books.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Graphic novel, hmm? I'd probably just go with something traditionally and superhero-y. With giant, awesome armor.

Well, I have had an idea floating around in my head for a few years now about a fantasy/sci-fi series; three planets in a single system that are at war with each other. On one planet, the people live in the sky, are virtually deaf, but have excellent eyesight. On the second, they live in the ocean, have barely any sense of taste or smell, but have superhuman hearing. On the third, they live underground, with almost no sense of sight, but can smell and taste with snakelike accuracy. The first planet hates the third for not being able to see well, the seconds hates the first for not being able to hear well, and the third hates the second for...well, you get the gist. It gets a bit more complicated with different systems of government, religion, education, and magic between the three peoples, but the general theme is very straightforward and BKV-lite: "Children always inherit the baggage of their parents." It's going to be epic awesome and make me so rich that JK Rowling will become my mewling b****.

...Problem is that to this day I can't decide if it works better in novel, graphic novel, or screenplay format.

That sounds like a neat idea. That sounds somewhat on the satirical side

 

[SuperMonkey]

I disagree with xisaccx (sp?). You do not paint yourself into a box by going the hero route. There are oodles (literally) of ways to break out in the hero market. I assume you haven't heard of a book called Invincible?

It is a more satirical take on it, but still a hero concept. I suggest you read my post, bottom of last page, and tell me what you think. I fully intend to publish it within the next ten years and I really think the market is still viable for new hero books. There's no reason a strictly Marvel/DC fan wouldn't read a hero book done by an indie publisher if it attracted their attention. In fact, I know many people (including me) who have done such. The market's just fine for hero books.

-- FunBob

P.S.: Project Superpowers.

 

[SuperMonkey]

I have two other outlines written, both about guys with serious mental issues.

One (The Life & Times of Jumbalaya Jenkins) is set in the 2020s during a second civil war. A young kid (Jumbalaya) is caught in the middle and brainwashed by the government into going up against his own father.

The second (Messiah) centers around a religious cult in an alternate South Africa where apartheid doesn't end for 20 more years, and the country splits into four states. One man comes in and unites it, declares himself God, and incites fervor across the continent

-- FunBob

 

[Anubis]

I got two

The first one is about a villain. It's called "I hate you more than anything."

I got the idea from some manga book that had this awesome title but it was wasted on something that was just so f**king stupid so I'm stealing it.

This is the story of a Super villain's obsession with a Superhero and the steps he is currently taking with his latest plan to gain vengeance upon this do gooder who has wronged him so. Kinda like Dr. Horrible or the Monarch from Venture Brothers only, taken a little more seriously. As in the why, and the total and complete obsession some of these guys tend to have with these heroes. Thinking about destroying them every waking moment of the day. That sorta thing.

The second one is about a Psychologist who specializes in taking care of capes. We see him in sessions with various heroes and villains discussing their problems. Like one famous Superman like hero trying to deal with his addiction to saving peoples lives and how he's been neglecting his family. Or a villain who has a sick attraction to her Wonder Woman like rival. A Punisher type anti-hero whom the doctor sees in prison. And a former kid side kick trying to deal with all his issues of having been thrown into harms way by a possibly deranged hero parent.

 

[SuperMonkey]

^Both sound interesting.

I'm also toying with the idea of doing a graphic novel or mini-series (probably the latter) about a war between vampires, werewolves, fallen angels and giants called NightWar

-- FunBob

 

[Obi-Ron]

I got two

The first one is about a villain. It's called "I hate you more than anything."

I got the idea from some manga book that had this awesome title but it was wasted on something that was just so f**king stupid so I'm stealing it.

This is the story of a Super villain's obsession with a Superhero and the steps he is currently taking with his latest plan to gain vengeance upon this do gooder who has wronged him so. Kinda like Dr. Horrible or the Monarch from Venture Brothers only, taken a little more seriously. As in the why, and the total and complete obsession some of these guys tend to have with these heroes. Thinking about destroying them every waking moment of the day. That sorta thing.

The second one is about a Psychologist who specializes in taking care of capes. We see him in sessions with various heroes and villains discussing their problems. Like one famous Superman like hero trying to deal with his addiction to saving peoples lives and how he's been neglecting his family. Or a villain who has a sick attraction to her Wonder Woman like rival. A Punisher type anti-hero whom the doctor sees in prison. And a former kid side kick trying to deal with all his issues of having been thrown into harms way by a possibly deranged hero parent.

Both are cool concepts, but I think you ought to come up with an original title for the first one.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I had a couple of concepts that need a lot of fleshing out

One was about a girl with immense mysterious power in a Val Halla type world being protected by 3 romanticized heroes. The Gunslinger, The Viking, and the Pirate. They'd travel this world meeting up with other romanticized versions of other heroes and villains.


The other was the idea that deitys gain power based on the people who worship them. Zeus and Odin, depowered significantly, would find other dieties in order to create heroes in their image to revive their life. The twist ending would be that they are angry at the world for turning their backs on them. Since the world would end if the scales are tipped either direction they decide to try to destroy the world by defeating evil. Their evil counterparts led by Loki create their own avatars as villains to stop them from destorying the world since Loki and the others enjoy messing with the humans so much. The Judo-Christian God and saints would find roles as well.

 

[SuperMonkey]

I tried a fanfiction project last year as a reboot of the DCU. It fell apart by the end of the year, but I've plotted a single-title book called Justice League Reborn, set in an alternate future (a la Kingdom Come) where the heroes aged in real life, and have gradually fallen away from crime fighting, as centralized governments become more powerful and pervasive. Kyle Rayner, a comic artist, is drawn to a mysterious green lantern. He takes it home and begins drawing images that it transmits to him telepathically.

Anyway, it turns out the Legion of Doom is planning to unleash mind-enhancing radiation on the animals of the world to throw it into chaos and seize power. Superman leads a push to re-form the Justice League to do battle against Grodd's Legion.

-- FunBob

 

[SuperMonkey]

I had a couple of concepts that need a lot of fleshing out

One was about a girl with immense mysterious power in a Val Halla type world being protected by 3 romanticized heroes. The Gunslinger, The Viking, and the Pirate. They'd travel this world meeting up with other romanticized versions of other heroes and villains.


The other was the idea that deitys gain power based on the people who worship them. Zeus and Odin, depowered significantly, would find other dieties in order to create heroes in their image to revive their life. The twist ending would be that they are angry at the world for turning their backs on them. Since the world would end if the scales are tipped either direction they decide to try to destroy the world by defeating evil. Their evil counterparts led by Loki create their own avatars as villains to stop them from destorying the world since Loki and the others enjoy messing with the humans so much. The Judo-Christian God and saints would find roles as well.

I really like the second one. PM me if you'd like to try brainstorming together. I've done co-writing before and could help you out if you're comitted to it.

-- FunBob

 

[SuperMonkey]

bump

-- FunBump

 

[SuperMonkey]

Why do I kill threads?

WHY?

-- FunBob

 

[Brown Lantern]

My story is about the second coming of God. I know it sounds strange but the tone is set much like the tone of a detective noir story only the plot twists are much more grand and border on answering the meaning of existance. One revelation will be that there was emptyness and everything in the beginning, then life came. Life is "God" or the creator. The Emptyness and God created wonders togather and all was good, but then God couldn't bare to have all life's thoughts dwell within him, thus he expaned his presence into what can only be explaned as the soul. Humanity itself is the split physche of an infinate being. That is why life is so precisous. The Emptyness wants to return the status quo and thusly begins trying to destroy the spirit or man by placing ideas such as war into the thoughts of mankind. God makes himself aware evey now and then to keep the Emptyness in check, thus we have Jesus, Muhammed, Buddah, and now a young woman named Victoria.
The story begins with a detective story set in 1985 which leads to a series of murders. 25 years later our detective has a daughter with no explanation.
Eventually Victoria begins to awaken. She rapidly becomes more athletic and intelligent on her way to becoming a god. The Emptyness stunts her progess and places her under tests in an attempt and prove to her that mankind is corrupt.
Much mystery and action ensuses and we learn the details of the character's backgrounds. The story is meant to make the goodness of makind shine by breaking down everything first much like in Shakespeare's later plays.

Sorry if this sounds crazy but Ive been working on it forever and I now almost have my Masters Degree in English and this story is epic. Sorry that my explanation is a little long.

 

[DeGenerate10]

I've been thinking of one. More people in the world are becoming mutants and the world governments come together and basically start a mutant holocaust. The main character who is something like a Captain America type reveals to the world that the government made him the way he is (mutant) and they've done the same to others around the world. This has caused a chain reaction around the world causing the mutant gene to spread faster than it normally would have. After he reveals this he is killed and his sacrific changes the world

 

[Keyser Soze]

Further proof that no matter how original you think your idea is, someone else has already beaten you to it.

I wrote up a script for the first part of a 4-issue miniseries, about a dentist who stumbles across an alien tooth that possesses people and turns them into killing machines, and ends up being chased by both a creepy federal agent and Russian gangsters. The title? "An Inconvenient Tooth"! Oh-ho! How original! I was so chuffed with that, thinking about how I'd come up with a witty name no one else will have thought of.

Then last week, I'm in my local Forbidden Planet, and find a graphic novel called.... "An Inconvenient Tooth".

 

[Hound55]

After reading Watchmen for the 5th time I started to think if I were to write my own graphic novel, what would it be about? So if you guys were to write your own novel what would it be about? Whos the main character? Anything is welcome here!

Well, you've got more cajones than me, mate.

Every time I read Watchmen it's a complete mind **** to me and makes me useless for writing for about a month. I get drowned in the f***ing notion that I'm not worthy to be writing anything in the medium whenever I read it because of how ridiculously good it is.

If ever both of my RPG characters suddenly go dormant for about a month its a fair bet that I foolishly had another read through Watchmen...

Funny thing is it doesn't happen with Frank Miller, Morrison or any other high end writers... mainly Watchmen and generally only some of Moore's best stuff does that to me.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

A story about a private detective in Victorian London who is investigating a series of grisly murders.

But it would have paranormal and metahuman touches to it too. Sorta like a alternate universe Jack the Ripper story.

My minds blank at the moment so can't really go into detail, but I've been thinking about it for a while.

I just like the idea of taking old crime cases or mythical tales and bringing a completely new spin to them, but whilst still retaining the main traits of the original stories.

 

[WompuM]

I just started working on an outline of a sci-fi story that's been bopping around my head for a bit. Basically, it's based on Carl Sagan's Cosmos mini-series, but you, with plot, and time travel.

 

[WompuM]

I got two

The first one is about a villain. It's called "I hate you more than anything."

I got the idea from some manga book that had this awesome title but it was wasted on something that was just so f**king stupid so I'm stealing it.

This is the story of a Super villain's obsession with a Superhero and the steps he is currently taking with his latest plan to gain vengeance upon this do gooder who has wronged him so. Kinda like Dr. Horrible or the Monarch from Venture Brothers only, taken a little more seriously. As in the why, and the total and complete obsession some of these guys tend to have with these heroes. Thinking about destroying them every waking moment of the day. That sorta thing.

The second one is about a Psychologist who specializes in taking care of capes. We see him in sessions with various heroes and villains discussing their problems. Like one famous Superman like hero trying to deal with his addiction to saving peoples lives and how he's been neglecting his family. Or a villain who has a sick attraction to her Wonder Woman like rival. A Punisher type anti-hero whom the doctor sees in prison. And a former kid side kick trying to deal with all his issues of having been thrown into harms way by a possibly deranged hero parent.

Nubby, have you thought about incorporating the two ideas?

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I had a great idea hit me yesterday. Like a diamond. Like a diamond bullet straight through my forehead.

It would be a story set in the real world, our world. Where superheroes and supervillains do battle in the pages of comics and on the silver screen in big budget blockbusters.

A young man, a comic book fan, who frequents the forums and other places on the net to discuss all things comics witnesses a comet hit the ground in one of his fathers crop fields late at night. He sneaks out to investigate. A strage aura surrounds the crash site, but being a curious fella, he checks it out anyway.

Well to cut a long story short he is granted super powers by this comet, which seems to be alive. In fact within the comet is a living entity, which attaches itself to him. The entity speaks to him via his brain waves (think Nova's Worldmind)and informs him of it's role as a protector of the universe, which travels space seeking those who will do great good. It has now chosen Earth because something evil lurks on the horizon.

So yea. This normal guy has been granted these unlimited powers which make him basically omnipotent. The story would be about him dealing with this. In a world where superheroes are confined to the pages and screens and talked about amongst fans all over the internet ie our world I think this would be pretty interesting.

He builds up his profile by averting natural disasters and terrorist acts. Stopping wars and mass genocide in countries all over the planet. You know, general super human messiah stuff. (Think Cable in Cable and Deadpool).

He chooses not to keep a secret identity, claiming that a true hero should have no secrets.

But he didn't realize the pressure and negative things that would come with being a real life superhero in a world where superheroes are cult icons, are licenses to print money for massive global corporations.

Soon he has these corporations banging at his door, wanting a piece of him for their own gains. On going comic book series, multi film franchises, action figures, press appearances the whole shebang. Not to mention the fan boys on the internet forums that he himself use to frequent baying for blood, unhappy that he is "selling out".

Not to mention Governments vying for his favour. Trying to official enlist him or whatever. And Governments who see him as a threat, wanting rid of him for good.

All these things take their toll on our hero. He questions whether he can continue doing this, whether not having a secret identity was the right choice, questioning his own ideals of what a hero should be. Realizing that when the whole world holds you up, sometimes the only way, is down. Realizing that his fondest dreams of becoming a real life superhero are not all they cracked up to be.

And the evil that lurks on the horizon is drawing closer. Our hero will have to deal with a global threat that could end mankind...whilst dealing with his fan mail.

-----------------

I just think it would be so cool to do something like this set in our world. A world that whilst fictional, superheroes play such a big part in our culture. How would our world react if something like this really came true?

Money hungry corporations wanting a piece of the pie that is our noble hero. Internet fan boys doing what fan boys do, picking this guy apart, skeptical of his authenticity. Some going the other way, worshiping him like some kind of God.

The implications on family and friends. Being directly targeted by terrorists, other countries and even his own.

Imagine if one of us were put in that position. It wouldn't be as cool as we might think.

 

[Anubis]

Sounds kinda awesome. How do you handle being a superhero and having *****e bags on the internet saying that you suck? Do you take the money? Do you even f**king need the money? These are things I've thought about myself. I came up with kill the D-bags, takeover the world, and not paying for anything.....ever.....but that's just me.

Nubby, have you thought about incorporating the two ideas?

Not until just this moment.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Thanks

Haha yes that's what I was aiming for people to think about. I think it'd be pretty interesting. I'd probably do the same as you if it come to it

 

[Anubis]

Have you figured out what the threat is gonna be?

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I was thinking that it is the opposite of this entity that came to our comic book fanboy. Whilst the one that came to him is a protector of the universe, this other entity is a destroyer of the universe. And it like the good version, joins with a normal human being and grants him superpowers.

Maybe the entities seek out those who can do great good and great evil?

The good one seeks out this lad who believes in all things heroic and that cheesy stuff and what not.

Whilst the other one seeks out someone who is drawn to bad, evil things or whatever. Like a serial killer or something along those lines.

So in the end it would be these two near omnipotent beings duking it out over Earth.