So this is what I'm gonna do...If you're in the dark, I'm referring to my previous entry on my journal.
Why nothing?
Well, a number of factors.
I didn't write out the rant with the intention of whipping people into a frenzy or getting everyone on my side to gang up on some hapless author, but to sort of gauge how people who aren't emotionally attached like I am to my work felt. Since it appears the consensus is "It's coincidence" then any further action I take will only make me look ridiculous. I would like you to know though, that I don't jump to conclusions based on scant evidence, and books don't often jump out at me like this one did.
I also want it to be clear that I had no intent of pursuing legal action or getting the book removed. I don't begrudge others their success, and I don't want to be one of "those people" that jump on the litigation train as soon as a property looks successful because they want a slice of the pie.
While there were many things that struck me as "familiar" in this work, even I have to admit it's not enough to motivate me into calling foul. If 6 out of 10 elements can be similar but not where it counts, 7-10 being that the zombies "don't eat brains" and that the story is going in a different direction, then most people are more than willing to dismiss reasons 1-6.
For instance, like how Deep Space Nine was totally ripping off Babylon 5, but because they changed so much only people with an intimate knowledge of both the series (and those that know that JMS once submitted the idea to Star Trek and it was soundly rejected...)were even aware of it. Since I lack the "intimate knowledge" of this book so far, I have to take the title, underlying message, genre, and similarly named characters and dismiss them as a nice collection of coincidences packed into one novel-soon-to-be-movie.
What did I want out of this after all? Not money, not attention! I just wanted to vent some frustration is all. I've been forced (by myself that is) to change things about my art and story in the past because of things like this, and I don't want it to happen again. There was a very dark age of bad, bad art in CTV thanks to a few lame comparisons to the comic-that-shall-not-be-named, where I tried so hard to differentiate my art from something it didn't look like in the first place, that I ended up with a style I hated drawing, and some of my ugliest art to date. It makes me cringe how off-model some of my characters looked! Thankfully I'm in a happier place regarding my art lately, I'm trying to slowly creep back to my more cartoony elements with only a few hangups, mostly people forgetting it's not supposed to be realism and trying to correct my anatomy on my characters! (I mean, when I'm using cartoon anatomy, it's fine when it's just bad anatomy all around and they point that out! There is after all a difference! ^_^)
The good thing about this is it has motivated me to do more with UIU, it sorely needs an update but because I have some sort of quality standard on it lately the pages take longer than they used to. I was thinking of returning to simpler means but I know that will be met only with resistance from its readers! But I want them to only take a half hour to finish again, but not look to like it!
What's sad is I have like 7 pages of a whole arc sitting in a folder that's probably 2 years old by now, but I couldn't post it until this current arc is done! Oy....
In the end, I'll probably end up waiting for this book to be in the library then pick it up. I'm shifty about it, I'm not too keen on first-person narrative, but I'll give it a try. I don't want to cry "wolf" on a chihuahua, you know!
*edit and one last thing, the guy thinks that Dawn of the Dead 2004 was better than the original, so he's got no taste regarding zombies! Romero is the zombie king, DOAD '04 was rotten zombie filth! Every humorless, unintelligent, bloated moment of it! No wit, no charm, no braaaains and no The Gonk!* [link]
Sorry if anyone actually liked that sack of horror-porn, but I'll take the 70's kitsch and orange blood of the original any day. I have a terrible bias against remakes, particularly if it was completely unnecessary to remake a classic!
*(if UIU was movie, The Gonk would be in it, and Fernando would DANCE LIKE A MANIAC to it!)
(and yeah, the Robot Chicken ending theme song is basically the chicken version of this song!)
(I like parenthesis. I am using them wrong and I don't care!)
Defeated
[link]
RULES:
1\ Post these rules.
2\ Each tagged person must post 8 things about themselves on their journal.
3\ At the end you have to choose 8 people to tag, and post their icons on the same journal.
4\ Go to their page and send a message saying you tagged them.
5\ NO tag-backs.
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In a world of confusion, I seem to make sense of it.
Well I am the type of artist that most don't like it seems.
just love your story about Charby the Vampirate
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Many people say that im not normal...
Then i Say whats Normal?
but yeah, anything I can do to help, let me know!
I'll give you a few pointers to start you off now even:
1. Start off with a bang. Not to say that you should have something epic going on with the first page, but plan out your beginning because you'll need to use that to hook people in and get them interested. a lot of comics I've seen start with a "slow burn" and don't show you any art until several pages later, and that's a big mistake to me! I have to admit that there are some comics that I probably would not be reading today if I'd not seen what they were doing 20 pages into the future before I got around to reading the start of their comic! Story IS important, but never forget when you're doing a comic the art is part of the writing too. After all, even a comic without dialogue can still tell a story!
2. Don't depend too heavily on dialogue for exposition. I've seen some comics with absolutely breathtaking art, but dialogue that makes you groan with how forced it sounds! If the audience is supposed to know that character A is afraid of water, it's best to establish this by showing it happen then having character B tell them something they already know. Most people are smart enough to pick up what's going on without the characters constantly reminding them!
3.Observe how other people talk. It's a simple exercise really, but that's how I personally worked with it. Before I moved to another state, I had a rather large group of friends I hung out with, and just listening to them banter back and forth amongst each other gave me sooo many ideas! It helped me develop what I felt were "realistic" characters without using myself as a basis (which some authors are wont to do, which isn't bad per se, just a tad limiting!) I think as a result I'm more comfortable writing male characters than female though, since the group was mostly guys...
Also, little things like added inflections and accents can help the reader "hear" your characters. Nobody speaks with perfect eloquence at all times, so keep this in mind when you write dialogue too! People have a tendency to add "um" and "ah" and other similar things almost subconsciously.
4. Figure out the mood and setting and write to it accordingly. If you know what genre you intend to work in, you've already got a start! Figure out what it is you like about the genre and what you dislike, and what changes you would personally make to it. Don't be afraid of cliche, have fun spinning it around!
Knowing what tone you want to set for your comic is a big help on getting started. For example, if I pick "action-comedy" I know what sort of things I'm writing to. You can add more elements along the way, but be mindful not to sidetrack yourself or change it too dramatically. If you've set your comic to "action-comedy" and it suddenly turns into "romantic-drama" people are going to be confused and left scratching their heads. Think of it in categories and subcategories. For instance, CTV I feel is this : Category, Modern Fantasy-comedy. Subcategory, Action mystery drama romance horror and parody.
That's covering a lot of bases, but because the subcategories are intended to add flavor instead of dominate the entire story, it somehow works (or I like to think it does!)
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When no one was looking, Lex Luthor stole forty cakes. He took 40 cakes. That's as many as four tens. And that's terrible.
Okay, I will keep all that in mind thanks ^_^ and honestly notes would help a lot more for me, dont know if it would be the same for everyone but notes definitely help me more since I can easily ask questions
How about coming up with original characters for myself? through out my life I have come up with multiples of my own characters but ended up getting side tracked from them or other things happen and I just get saddly... board with them.. The first character I made was a character named Zylo that I kinda took from the game Shining Force XD I was like 5 but it was cool, a werewolf with a mechanical arm, after a while of making other characters I slowly forgot them and made new ones, soon enough I made a man who generates metal weapons from his body, after that came a Blood Lord, and then came a Lizard King XD
I dont know how to make proper characters is my main problem and I dont know how I can make a character I can stick with to the end, I was thinking of making a comic that revolved around LOTS of people like CTV so that I can keep my focus spread and not get board easily but the problem is making the characters in the first place... any tips for that?
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