Graphic Novel
Basic story idea
Friends (teenagers) are staying at a cottage at for the weekend. They are playing dares when they notice a large farm down the hill from them. They dare the main character “Jess”, to go up to the farm and go in.
The farm is old and decrepit, it looks like nobody has been there for a while. She pushes the door open and goes in. She scans the room and sees animals, such as Pigs, in pens and “trap door” on the floor at the other end of the room with brown liquid around the edges. She calls her friends in to examine the door and they decide to open it and take a look. It’s a deep black pit, and it’s so dark they can’t see to the bottom of it. They’re all looking in, (Jess standing by the edge) and one of the friends who wasn’t taking much notice because they were on their phone, (or distracted by something else) finally looks up and sees the massive pit and runs up to everyone to see, trips, and knocks Jess into the pit.
She falls for what seems like forever and is knocked out when she finally hits the floor. When she wakes up she feels off, something doesn’t feel right, but she doesn’t know what it is. She walks towards a large metal door that’s slightly ajar in the distance as it’s the only thing she can see. When she gets there, she opens it and is met with a rotting smell. She walks into the room, and it looks like a butchers, there is (off) meat on display in the cabinets they have, a till, but that’s pretty much it. This is confusing to the girl because the only other door to get in is the one behind the counter. She calls out to let someone know she’s there, but she hears nothing in return. She waits a couple of minutes and then decides to just go behind the counter and go into the back.
As she opens the door the smell gets more intense and she covers her nose. She looks ahead of her and sees all the decomposing (human) carcasses hanging from the ceiling. She’s almost sick and then she hears thuds getting closer accompanied by squeals. She hide behind one of the tables, and a door bursts open on the other side of the room. Two large pigs (pig/human) carrying more human bodies trudge in, the bodies are limp, but still alive. They’re slapped down on the table and then the pigs begin to saw into them, for a moment their eyes opens and they begin to scream, but that quickly stops. She looks to the door they emerged from and heads for it. She makes a noise just as she gets to the door and they notice her, squeal and run to her. She slams the door behind her just in time and the creatures just seem to forget instantly as they don’t even bang on the door. It’s as if they’ve disappeared.
She’s now at the bottom of a staircase, all she can she is a loose metal panel on the wall in front of her, and the stairs to her right. She heads up the stairs to the next door, hoping this will lead her out to the surface again so she can re-join her friends and get the hell out of there.
The next door is wooden, it has little patterns etched into it.
Ending of whole comic (Which won’t be in the 4 pages I do, but I will probably continue in my own time.)
Once she goes up all the stairs and through the different horrific rooms, she comes to a point where when she looks up, she can see the opening which she fell in, but it’s too high up, and the only other way to go is through a small tunnel/shoot, she tries to shout loud enough so people can hear, but there is no one there, she cries and sits on the edge of the shoot, she closes her eyes and throws herself down the shoot. She falls and crashes into a metal hatch, and she bursts through it and ends up on the first floor again.
The whole story is supposed to be that she died at the very beginning when she fell into the pit in the farm, and it’s just her brain hallucinating the whole story in a limbo state and it will continue to loop around.
Coraline/Alice in Wonderland inspired.
The farm is old and decrepit, it looks like nobody has been there for a while. She pushes the door open and goes in. She scans the room and sees animals, such as Pigs, in pens and “trap door” on the floor at the other end of the room with brown liquid around the edges. She calls her friends in to examine the door and they decide to open it and take a look. It’s a deep black pit, and it’s so dark they can’t see to the bottom of it. They’re all looking in, (Jess standing by the edge) and one of the friends who wasn’t taking much notice because they were on their phone, (or distracted by something else) finally looks up and sees the massive pit and runs up to everyone to see, trips, and knocks Jess into the pit.
She falls for what seems like forever and is knocked out when she finally hits the floor. When she wakes up she feels off, something doesn’t feel right, but she doesn’t know what it is. She walks towards a large metal door that’s slightly ajar in the distance as it’s the only thing she can see. When she gets there, she opens it and is met with a rotting smell. She walks into the room, and it looks like a butchers, there is (off) meat on display in the cabinets they have, a till, but that’s pretty much it. This is confusing to the girl because the only other door to get in is the one behind the counter. She calls out to let someone know she’s there, but she hears nothing in return. She waits a couple of minutes and then decides to just go behind the counter and go into the back.
As she opens the door the smell gets more intense and she covers her nose. She looks ahead of her and sees all the decomposing (human) carcasses hanging from the ceiling. She’s almost sick and then she hears thuds getting closer accompanied by squeals. She hide behind one of the tables, and a door bursts open on the other side of the room. Two large pigs (pig/human) carrying more human bodies trudge in, the bodies are limp, but still alive. They’re slapped down on the table and then the pigs begin to saw into them, for a moment their eyes opens and they begin to scream, but that quickly stops. She looks to the door they emerged from and heads for it. She makes a noise just as she gets to the door and they notice her, squeal and run to her. She slams the door behind her just in time and the creatures just seem to forget instantly as they don’t even bang on the door. It’s as if they’ve disappeared.
She’s now at the bottom of a staircase, all she can she is a loose metal panel on the wall in front of her, and the stairs to her right. She heads up the stairs to the next door, hoping this will lead her out to the surface again so she can re-join her friends and get the hell out of there.
The next door is wooden, it has little patterns etched into it.
Ending of whole comic (Which won’t be in the 4 pages I do, but I will probably continue in my own time.)
Once she goes up all the stairs and through the different horrific rooms, she comes to a point where when she looks up, she can see the opening which she fell in, but it’s too high up, and the only other way to go is through a small tunnel/shoot, she tries to shout loud enough so people can hear, but there is no one there, she cries and sits on the edge of the shoot, she closes her eyes and throws herself down the shoot. She falls and crashes into a metal hatch, and she bursts through it and ends up on the first floor again.
The whole story is supposed to be that she died at the very beginning when she fell into the pit in the farm, and it’s just her brain hallucinating the whole story in a limbo state and it will continue to loop around.
Coraline/Alice in Wonderland inspired.
This is the mind map I created to help come up with my story idea. The final comic will be drawn on the computer, so it will be digital. For the style, I'm just going to see what feels right as I start drawing it on the computer, but the comic is quite dark, so the style will follow that. Although the character is based off me, she won't necessarily do things in the comic I would do, she's just looks based mostly. I circled horror, adventure, and mystery for the theme, as I feel I could make the most interesting story this way because these are all the things I enjoy the most to watch/read in my own time, so I have plenty of inspiration. |
This is the front, side, and back of the main character. I'm going to add colour, but I'm documenting it like this in case I don't like how the colour turns out.
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This is the first idea I have for a cover and title, I might change it when it comes to drawing it on the computer, because I want the image to really stand out and lure people to this comic.
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This is the finished drawing of the front cover of my comic. As you can see I've stuck to my original design pretty closely, except the finished one looks more detailed, realistic, and has volour.
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These four pages are the first drawings of what my section of comic is going to look like. They are very, very, basic sketches, to plan where people are going to be standing, and what the focus of each panel is.
Evaluation of comic
I've put my finished pages next to my original sketches to show the difference of quality in them. So far I'm proud of my work and how nice it looks on the computer. I would've liked more time to add even more detail in though, as I think some panels look a bit unfinished.
The style of my comic is quite cartoon-y which I like, but it isn't completely unrealistic as I tried to keep things like proportions of bodies as normal as I could. I think because of the solid colours and style of my comic, it stands out quite a lot and I think that people would be drawn into it more than just a black and white comic.
The style of my comic is quite cartoon-y which I like, but it isn't completely unrealistic as I tried to keep things like proportions of bodies as normal as I could. I think because of the solid colours and style of my comic, it stands out quite a lot and I think that people would be drawn into it more than just a black and white comic.
Out of all the pages I've done, ths is my favourite. I love the way it's layed out and the different shots there are in each panel. My favourite panel is number 2, which has the close-up of the main characters eyes. I think it's ended up looking really pretty and proffesional. In my opinion, this page stands out the most.
Although it's my favourite page, it does need iprovements. Some of the changes I think could be made are in the last panel, I think one of the people needs to be re-drawn so they look more realistic/ in proportion, and I think even though the style isn't supposed to have a lot of detail, I do think it needs ever so slightly ore detail adding to it. I could do this by adding maybe a couple of animals in the barn, or by even just adding a couple more shadows on the walls and floor. |
Copyright
Copyright is one of the main types of IP. It is the right to prevent others copying or reproducing someone's work. The main legislation dealing with copyright in the United Kingdom is the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
Copyright protects artistic and literary expression, this means any concept art to final pieces, or drafts of script to the final script, belongs to the creator if they are in employment, otherwise they belong to the company.
You can’t always copyright everything, for example, if your game has things like scoring, coins, lives and sky/ground these are un copyrightable due to ‘Scenes a faire’ as these are all essential parts of most games, so if these aspects were ever to be copyrighted, it would be extremely difficult/ next to impossible for other people to create new games.
There have been several big copyright infringements, one example is Nintendo Vs Universal Studios, which suggested Donkey Kong is ripped off of King Kong. Universal studios only argument really, was that it was also a big monkey/gorilla, and in the game there is a blond female character (Princess peach). Nintendo won the case of Donkey Kong as the argument wasn’t strong enough and also to top it all off, King Kong became public domain as no one renewed the copyright meaning nobody owned it, so if Nintendo wanted to just completely make a King Kong game, they could without getting permission from anyone.
I've put this paragraph about copyright in to show I know what it is. My comic is all original ideas though, so I don't have to worry about going against any copyright laws.
Copyright protects artistic and literary expression, this means any concept art to final pieces, or drafts of script to the final script, belongs to the creator if they are in employment, otherwise they belong to the company.
You can’t always copyright everything, for example, if your game has things like scoring, coins, lives and sky/ground these are un copyrightable due to ‘Scenes a faire’ as these are all essential parts of most games, so if these aspects were ever to be copyrighted, it would be extremely difficult/ next to impossible for other people to create new games.
There have been several big copyright infringements, one example is Nintendo Vs Universal Studios, which suggested Donkey Kong is ripped off of King Kong. Universal studios only argument really, was that it was also a big monkey/gorilla, and in the game there is a blond female character (Princess peach). Nintendo won the case of Donkey Kong as the argument wasn’t strong enough and also to top it all off, King Kong became public domain as no one renewed the copyright meaning nobody owned it, so if Nintendo wanted to just completely make a King Kong game, they could without getting permission from anyone.
I've put this paragraph about copyright in to show I know what it is. My comic is all original ideas though, so I don't have to worry about going against any copyright laws.