The Comic Strip Discussion Thread

Okay, lads and ladies.

We need to get on this one quite rapidly, as we have planned to have the comic strip thing up and running by the time the NSC II event rolls around in November?and obviously we don?t have that much time now ? although, I?m confident we?ll have something rather nifty to present by then!

For those of you who don?t know what this is about, FF-UK is having our own table at the NSC event, where we will promote ourselves, and have some fun in the process. For those of you who couldn?t make it to Signatopia in August, the table we had was a big success, even if the crowd attendance at the event was less than anticipated. Anyway, it was discussed what we could do to help draw people in, and one of the ideas thrown around was to do a comic strip for children (although, I?m sure that the ?big kids? will be interested in this one as well). The strip would entail a short story where we would photograph children against a green screen in a variety of poses, drop them into the middle of the action as the hero, and then print them off to take away.

What we need to do now is to come up with a short story, and start designing the layout and look of the comic itself. It has been proposed that the comic would have been broken down into several panels?around 14 in total, with three so far have been determined:

• The opening crawl.
• The person receiving their medal.
• The final award ceremony shot (like the final shot of ANH).

Obviously we need to come up with something to go in between them in the other 11 panels. This also begs the other question, what are we going to do? Is it going to be a Jedi piece? Will it be a Rebel Pilot piece? What about a smuggling story?

I?m going to post a thread in the Fan Art forum to see if there would be anybody willing to help out.

I think we should start getting this one started, and this is the thread to do it in. So, what do you think we should do? Get the story pinned down first, and then start thinking on the logistical side of things?

Come on, people. Let?s get this one cranked out.

 

My initial thoughts on this was to have three maybe four stories available, Jedi, Sith, Rebel Pilot and your idea for a smuggler story fits in nicely.

I'm no writer as you may have noticed from the original thread and I'm not much of an artist as the banner clearly shows but I'm sure that between all of us we can come up with some basic story boards for the three catagories. We have images from the OT available from TFn's media section, I'm looking through a bunch of KotoR and KotoR II screenies for the Sith story, I'll let you know how I get on with those.

Here are a few of the 'Bare Bones' idea's I've had.

Rebel Pilot at the battle of Hoth/Yavin/Endor or ala Shadows of the Empire Coruscant
Jedi at Geonosis/Tatooine/Kashyyk/Coruscant
Sith at Tanis/Kamino/Korriban/Tatooine

Not great I know but if any of you feel inspired please feel free.

 

I'm not a perfect comic artist but, If your just after rough storyboards/ideas at the minute, I'd be willing to give this a go. Maybe concept pieces or something?

 

just a real quick question, but if this is to promote the FF-UK as a whole, why not put this up on the regional board too? that way, other people in the FF-UK can throw ideas at this too.

 

Nice idea Dave but I think it would only help to muddy the waters at this point, Mark might disagree with that it's just what I think.

 

that`s cool, it`s just that mark said the FF-UK was having a table, not just the FF-UK:M, so i thought everyone could put their 2p in.

 

Well, I don't want to overstep my bounds here, so Phill, if you want to correct me here, go right ahead. But the way I see the table, is a representation of the whole of FF-UK, not just ourselves. The table at Signatopia was manned by ourselves as well as Leigh (Leigh, would you class yourself as a Northern member, or a Midlands member?) The table itself just happens to be led by the Midlands (Hey, you got to lead by example, right? )

It's kind of a grey area, and kind of hard to explain in words, as yes, it is the table for the Midlands, but when you think about it, since we are probably the most active chapter in the UK, we are representing the UK as a whole.

Does that make any sense? I'm not sure, but I think you can see where I'm going with it.

 

I dont really know mark, now that the north has a chapter (A North Eastern quarter) I might work on helping get that up and running ...yet I like going to meets with you midlands lot As of now im still drifting between the two...Not a solid member of either yet. But surely your chapter can't limit to what meets you attend right?

 

Mark, I think you've got the right of it there. Whilst the Midlands are manning this table, it's an FF-UK event I feel. There is the possibility of visitors from all over the country to this place, so it's nice to prevent a national kind of feel

With regards to the comic stuff, I have no problem with something going on the regional board if that's what you want to do I would also recommend perhaps contacting Lord-Tice on the London boards, he's a bit of an artist

 

For this, if we can get hold of decent screen caps can we mess about with those?

 

I think that's a definite option V.

 

What a sweet idea!!! wish I could help out more guys....

 

u can. help us come up with some ideas to begin with and maybe then we might have something else.

how about:-
A smuggler rescues an baby ewok from imps. they the kids can become 'appart of the tribe'

 

I had a thought about this today.

What I was thinking for the Smuggler story was having our young hero on the run from Imperial Stormtroopers escaping from a facility, and our hero has to shoot his way out. I got the idea from the scene where the Falcon takes off from Docking Bay 94.

As to doing the shots, I suppose we could perhaps ask two or three people who has Trooper armour to pose for some photographs - ie shooting at our hero, getting hit by returned blaster fire, shooting at the ship as it's taking off. Something like that, and then alter those shots with the filters in photoshop to make it look like painted/drawn artwork.

I also had another though as to implementing our young hero into a shot where he/she has to look like their interacting with a drawn character, for instance, a saber fight in the Jedi story. We could do it on a three-layer-process, similar to a transparency you looked at in school. You could have your background plate, our hero on the middle plate, and the enemy on the third plate on top of that.

 

how about lightsaber training with a jedi master(i offer to be that) at the temple.
the kid could develope a new skill or something and have a honour bestowed upon him (not a medal because jedi dont have stuff of their own)

 

That's not bad. I'm also thinking, what about a young Jedi escaping the carnage of Order 66. I think since ROTS is popular at the moment, it might be an exciting angle.

 

took the words out of my mouth with that one mark, i was thinking of the jedi purge myself. the kids could be padawans. could use some generic backdrop shots, and this could be quite easy to pull off. of course, when i say easy, i mean for someone who`s good with photoshop, unlike me, who is beyond help with that program.

 

Guys, my housemate was a Graphic designer and draws all the time (usually his own Sci-Fi comic) and has said he would illustrate whatever you wanted if you were interested

I can scan and e-mail some of the pages of the comic he already illustrates or some other works for you to check out but he IS very, very good!

Just something for you to think about as he's done this kind of thing for a living... you just have to give him the story

Depends if you want photographs or just a drawn script though... and as ever my photoshop skills are at your disposal

 

how about a comprimise.
jedi student lightsaber fighting.
clones burst in.
clones kill master.
student runs.
kills a few clones
graps a starfigher
and bursts out of coruscant.

i mean if you want 14-15 shots thats 7 covered at least. just pad it out a little

 

That's actually not bad, Dave. Since the story itself is quite short, the story has to move quite quickly.

I'm sure that can be done. Anyone else got any thoughts?

EDIT: Nic, that sounds awesome. If you want to send on a couple of samples, go right ahead!

 

ill have a think on where to add bits in and how to draw the pics. well i think that is one story done. now we just need what? 3 more?

 

Quick question. Will the size of the kid matter at all? Because if you have a tiny kid, then one who is over five foot, will they both look natural in the settings, or am I just being dim?

 

Hi Izzy, no you're not being dim, it's all going to come down to perspective and I'll leave that kind of thing to the experts like Mark and Phill.

Dave that sounds like a great idea with the Padawan and the Master, for that we'll need some pics of a training room in the Temple, I assume you're using Coruscant as the backdrop for this ???

 

I hope you dont mind me adding something to this, this is a great idea By the way Guys.....

As i kid growing up i so wanted to be Luke Skywalker, so How about

Young Kid working on Farm, wants something better, Finds a Droid with a Picture of a Girl, Searches for the Girl, Rescues the Girl, Fights the Bad Guy, saves the Day then gets his Medal and the Girl.

Its a tried and tested Story that worked..... : )

 

Hey, Izzy. No, it's not a dumb question; as a matter of fact, I thought about it myself. The shots will probably be taken at different angles, and we can match them up later. That's one of the logistical things I have to work out, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Simon: That's a good idea. Keep the ideas coming, everyone!