Joplin this Saturday

Tr!ckster symposia during Comic-Con

For those of you who will be in San Diego during Comic-Con, you’ve probably heard about the concurrent Tr!ckster event.

I’ll be participating in two of the symposia. Visit the Tr!ckster site for more information on tickets and what have you:

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SYMPOSIUM 2:
Thursday, 7/21/11, 3:30PM to 5:30 PM

THE JUMP FROM PAGE TO SCREEN

Featuring creators MIKE MIGNOLA, DOUG TENNAPEL, CHRIS RYALL, B. CLAY MOORE, and more TBA
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Comics and film are separate mediums and we at TR!CKSTER openly accept and celebrate them as such. We create our comics with the intent to tell incredible, unique stories in a visual medium we enjoy. Often times, of course, these properties can grow into a new kind of life on screen, but is the integrity of the creator or the intent of the original story sacrificed for the cinematic experience? Join a unique, honest, no-holds-barred discussion of the realities of selling your work to the film community, how “development” works for creators of comics, and how to protect and promote your work, and yourself, as your intellectual property crosses media.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers considering the migration of their work to other media

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SYMPOSIUM 7:
Sunday, 7/24/11, 1:00PM to 3:00 PM

WORLD-BUILDING and the IMMACULATE REALITY

Featuring film and comics storytellers GREG RUCKA, IVAN BRANDON, B. CLAY MOORE, TED MATHOT, DEREK THOMPSON, and more TBA
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Fiction is a limitless landscape, ripe for painting with the varied colors of the imagination. Fiction is the realm of the impossible made possible. To do this effectively, writers, artists and storytellers present themselves with questions requiring unique answers. Not only must they know the lives and environments and politics of their central players, they must know what lurks behind the curtain, what lies beyond the horizon, and what awaits just off-screen. Even the most fantastical and surreal worlds must still be grounded in a reality that the audience can start from, can find footing on, and can then move from the familiar safety of…into the new worlds of story. This workshop will also dive into creating the worlds of character interaction: how player dynamics must be constructed effectively. In this, we’ll analyze the roles of archetypes including the “trickster” and how they effect the stories of their worlds.

PERFECT FOR: writers and storytellers of all types, in film, prose, comics, and beyond, looking to hone their writing skills through intense discussion and analysis with top working storytellers.

Slingshots Full of Donkey Poo!

So, as you probably know, Tony Harris and I have been toiling for some time on our upcoming DC book, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE WHISTLING SKULL.

What you may not know is that we’ve also been kicking around a second concept. Something Tony first mentioned to me a couple of years back, but that we’ve only recently been getting relatively serious about. The concept is called BUFFALO MONK, and Tony detailed the early genesis of the idea, along with some or our brainstorming, over at his ART AND SKULDUGGERY BLOG (click the link!):

THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA

Included over there is this sheet of doodles and ideas that give you an idea of how Tony first conceived the concept:

So, Tony and I have decided to share some of the progress we make on our respective blogs. If I were you, I’d start by leaping over to his blog, because he covers much of the ground that’s led us to this point.

I will say that as crazy as the idea of a Silverback cowboy that rides a talking donkey and shoots poop with a slingshot might sound, the world Tony envisioned when he first floated the concept past me was almost immediately clear to me. And that’s really the key to making any new concept work: creating a world with rules that make sense, no matter how off the wall they seem.

With the world alive in my mind’s eye, it was easy to start contributing ideas and concepts that made “sense” in BUFFALO MONK‘s universe, and that’s when collaboration really gets fun. And Tony’s freewheeling conceptualizing is always contagious. He’ll come up with something completely out of left field, but that something usually carries with it some internal logic that relates to the fictional canvas on which  you’re painting.

So…I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to update our progress, but we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop while we build a new universe out of donkey poo and skinned buffalo.