Manga Comic

So for the Manga comic I got a really ridiculous, raunchy idea that with my literally no experience in drawing Manga style I don't think I could pull off with drawing it. I did a sort of proposal for what it would be since I don't really know the language tropes in Manga enough to write dialogue. Anyway, I had fun with it!

The Magical Fruit Bakery
Comic Proposal
Short Series #1-#5 Issues

Synopsis
Sakura is the owner of The Magical Fruit Bakery. They bake pies and all their pies are made from magical fruit. But recently the magical fruit tree has not been making any fruit! The fruit collectors she sends have been coming back empty handed and say that they don't know what to do! So she decides to go on a journey herself to find out why the magical fruit tree isn't bearing any fruit. She leaves her pie bakery in the hands of her collectors while she is away. She travels by foot to find the magical fruit tree and when she finally comes to see it is is wilting and has no flowers! When she tries to approach it three tiny lizard people dressed as lizards pop out of the ground. They call themselves the Lizard Wizards. The Lizard Wizards say that only the most talented baker with the truest love for pies can save the tree. To prove herself she must bake each of the Lizard Wizards their favorite pie. She gathers the ingredients for the pies and bakes them all up in the kitchen in the Lizard Wizard's house underground. When the Lizard Wizard's taste her pies they all agree that she is the baker that can save the tree. They take her back to the magical fruit tree and tell her the secret. The tree is actually a giant beautiful woman that wanted to become a tree. She is now immortal and bears magical fruit and looks like a tree. But every hundred years she begins to wilt because she runs out of seed and needs to be filled with the seed of the truest baker. Sakura agrees to be the baker to help the tree bear fruit again. The wind picks up and leaves and magic swirl all around the tree and it turns into a beautiful naked woman with the longest flowing green hair. Sakura, who looks like a lady but is a hermaphrodite, has sex with the tree and deposits her seed in the lady tree. After that the tree kisses her and thanks her and whispers her name to her, which is a secret, then turns back into an actual tree. When she turns back into a tree she is sprouting flowers and growing fruit! And to their amazement it is the best fruit that has come from the tree in all time! Sakura thanks the Lizard Wizards and heads back to her bakery to make the most delicious pies ever made.

Characters

Sakura: A hermaphrodite baker who owns a bakery called The Magical Fruit Bakery that only makes pies from magical fruit. She has blueberry colored hair because that is her favorite pie. She ties her hair up in a bow. She is the baker with the truest love for pies in the whole world and the only one who can save the magical fruit tree. She wears a bakers outfit all the time and a really short shirt and knee socks.

Fruit Collectors: The fruit collectors work for Sakura at The Magical Fruit Bakery. They collect the fruit from the magical tree. They, however, do not know how to bake and are all kind of lovable idiots. They are all ladies that wear aprons, but the aprons have boob windows so their boobs are hanging out all the time. They all have different colored short hair.

The Lizard Wizards: The Lizard Wizards are three tiny lizard people. They walk on two feet and can talk. They are the keepers of the magical fruit tree. They each have a favorite kind of pie; Red's favorite is apple pie, Green's favorite is key lime pie, and Purple's favorite is blackberry pie. They live under the magical fruit tree in the ground.

The Magical Fruit Tree: The Magical Fruit Tree bears the most delicious fruit in all the land and it is magic. The tree was once a living woman. The woman wanted bear the most delicious fruit. The Lizard Wizards granted her wish and made her into a tree. Now she is immortal, but needs to be filled with seed by the baker who has the truest love for pies every hundred years. Only then does she go back to her human form for a short time. Only the baker's who fill her with her seed know her true name.

Four Directions Comic

Since the directions comic was kind of about a place I decided to experiment with photos in comics. I took some photos in the different directions from lying in the grass in my favorite place on campus.

Image Comics Submission Guidelines

Image Comics has done many of my favorite books over the years so I thought I'd check out their submission guidelines.

So basically Image only wants new, original ideas for books. They don't accept any writing samples. They want proposals for a new comic series or graphic novel. Image only does creator-owned material so you aren't going to get a job at Image doing art or writing for a book that is already out there. In fact they make it very clear that they want the creative team that pitches the idea to be the ones working on the book. You simply are not allowed to hire other people than the people you originally state will be working on the book. Also because Image hires based on creative teams and a whole idea they don't pay page rates. They pay by the book and take a small fee for publishing and the rest goes to the creative team to split up as they please. Though it is a creator-owned work they want to make it clear that they will have some ideas to impart to make the book better and more marketable so don't get married to the title or exact format you originally pitch.

Ok, now to the specifics of submitting. Here's everything you have to submit in a proposal:

1. A typewritten cover letter with all contact info at the top of the page. They just want a basic introduction of who you are at this point.
2. A typed, one page, synopsis of the overall story. They want to know they entire story or story arc, not just one issue.
3. Photocopies of fully inked and lettered pages. They don't want original art as they will never be able to return it. They want at LEAST 5 pages of the book and would love to see more if you have them.
4. Color is optional. They don't need it to be colored, but if the book in final form is going to be colored then it is recommended, but not required, that you send it in colored.
5. Include a cover mock up. Have a good logo that is easy to read from across the room. They want to see that you have good design sense.

Send submissions to:

Submissions

c/o Image Comics

2001 Center Street Sixth Floor Berkeley, CA 94704

or email them to: submissions@imagecomics.com

They want you to be honest and don't really want flattery. Don't talk about other publishers or such and don't have testimonials. Just let the work speak for itself. 

They are a huge publisher so while they say they try to get back to everyone who submits they can't always do that. If you don't receive a reply within a month of your submission consider the proposal rejected. If they are interested in your proposal they will absolutely get back to you within a month.

Also Image Comics doesn't own any intellectual properties and the creators will always get to keep that and will always own their work. Which for people who are worried about publishers stealing ideas is very comforting.

Overall, Image seems like a good place to submit if you have a team, are very self motivated, and have a big idea that is original. I really like Images model of accepting creator based work because it really keeps the market fresh. The most popular comics in recent years have come out of Image and I think that is because they really support the creator.

Mystery Comic Idea

This is an idea that I originally pitched during thesis for a game. I think it would work equally as well with comics and it is a mystery through and through.

Short Synopsis: Umbra Gray (Title)

A noir actress named Umbra Gray has been murdered and is stuck in Limbo, a surreal labyrinth like city covered in shadow. In order to escape she must find out her murdered her by finding clues as she re-lives old memories and is guided by the mysterious Operator, who contacts her through telephone booths throughout the city. However, a giant clock tower looms over the city counting down the time Umbra has left to solve her murder or else she dissolves into a mere shadow of herself. As the time is ticking against her and lost souls try to drag her down will she ever find out how she died?

Characters

Umbra: A notorious actress from the 50's. In life, she lived fast and loose taking any opportunity she could. She started out as a good girl from a small town, but quickly found that doesn't get you very far and learned to get what she wanted, no matter the cost. In death, she searches Limbo for the clues that will lead her to find the cause of her own death.

Operator: A man, or at least the sound of a man's voice, that speaks to Umbra through phone booths and gives her information about how to escape Limbo and find her killer. His voice is deep and rasps through the telephone and yet he speaks slow and soft. He seems to know a lot about who Umbra is and how she lived.

Shadows: Throughout the city are lost souls that have been trapped in Limbo for eternity that try to drag Umbra down into the abyss of fog below the city. Some shadows speak to her and give her clues that may or may not be true.

Clock Tower: The clock tower is huge and constantly counting down the time Umbra has until she loses herself and become a shadow. A top the tower sits an enormous stone gargoyle that spits out. 

Various other characters from Umbra's life, etc...

Basic Outline

1. Umbra wakes up in a theatre and everything seems off. The world is black and white and she is watching one of her own films and everyone around her is crying. When she tries to talk to other people they disappear. The film ends and a credit is shown that states 'In memory of Umbra Gray'. She realized that she is dead and runs out of the door of the theatre and sees Limbo.

2. Confused by the new landscape she walks the fire escapes and sky bridges the connect the buildings of Limbo and sees a shadow of a person whispers to themselves and tries to talk to them. But she realizes that it is only a shadow and when it notices she is there is chases her and tries to grab her. She climbs into a window to escape it and finds herself in an empty room with a telephone booth in the middle and it is ringing.

3. She answers the phone and a man who knows her name is on the other line. He calls himself the Operator. He says that the news in the real world is that she is missing and that she was last seen in a singing lounge with her agent. He says that she is suspected to be murdered and that her agent is under investigation. The Operator gives her a clue as to where she can find out more information in Limbo that he cannot get.

4. Now believing that the cause of her death is murder she follows the clues that the Operator gives. The story the follows her connecting clues and getting more info and clues from the Operator who seems to know a lot about her life.

5. All the clues she is finding seems to lead to her rival actress to be the one who murdered her. Her rival was also her lover.

However, the Operator reveals that her rival lover's body was found murdered, so it couldn't have been her.

6. In her last conversation with the Operator she finds out that the Operator is actually her psychic communicating to her from the living world, which explains why he is helping her and knows so much about her and the living world. However, he has hit a dead end and has no more leads. He can't help you anymore.

7. Time is starting to run out. Umbra becomes desperate and as her last seconds are ticking away she gives up and jumps from the top of a building into the abyss.

8. Once she does this she sees herself on the street. Dead in the living world. She discovers that she wasn't actually murdered but killed herself after accidentally murdering her lover in a fight. 

Because she was able to come to this realization she escapes Limbo and moves onto the light.

SOLUTION: Throughout the story and the clues she finds the love affair with her rival actress is slowly revealed. Also Umbra's underlying regret for the actions she's had to take to get her to the top. These small hints of her depression and love for the other woman will give the reader good reason to believe that Umbra's actual cause of death in the end was suicide.

Morning Exercise - March 21

Floating through space. Time is measured by stars and their dead light. It is empty here, but also entire. Somehow the way things come into view and out it feels like a long, dark hallway where the doors are endless and unknown. I want to walk through this door, but it is locked. Even though it is locked from the outside I still cannot get in. If what I want is on the other side I should be able to break through it. Shatter the wood and let it splinter around me like a thousand stars. But I can't. Or I can't yet. Or I never will be able to. Because I'll never be good enough. But floating here in the dark, unattached to anything I can do. It doesn't hurt here. I don't think I deserve to go through any door. And the doors feel the same. As they are all locked and want nothing to do with me. They say "Get out. This is not for you." As I breathe I realize there is no air and never has been. I have put these locks here and the keys never existed. They are meant to be broken. They tease and taunt me the way they refuse to break. But I barely try.

He laughs at the locks. He doesn't believe in the doors. He wants to take the sky, but it is not his. He will do anything to have it. The locks believe his lies and the doors disappear with such ease. It is not fair. It is painful to watch. Is the only way to get through to lie? Does lying make you good enough? That does not make sense. If that is the way to this place I do not want to be in it. I would rather float eternally in the dark, never knowing where I am or where I am going. Honesty is supposed to be pure and good, but who supposed it? Maybe it isn't.

As I walk down the dark hallway, there is a turn and around it comes me. I smile. I reach out my hand and shake it. Did I come through a door? How did I break the lock? She slaps me and shakes her head. I deserve this. She knows why. Leaning over to my ear, I whisper all the things I have done. She does not say whether they are bad or good, but I have done them all regardless of that. She looks at me and presses a kiss to my lips. The kiss tells me the things I need to do. How to break through. She looks past me as if she had never seen me at all. She walks down the hallway and passes through a door, without even breaking it and comes through another one. When she looks my way she looks as if she has been through a thousand heartbreaks and I reach out to touch her, to comfort her, but my hands go through her like water. She sounds like a rushing river when she speaks, but somehow I understand. "Not yet," she says.

Spring Break

Family Comic

Yay for super vulnerable comics! I've mainly written ridiculous silly comics so I thought this would be a good opportunity to get a little more vulnerable. Which is really scary, but also really liberating to write about memories that have been stewing in my mind for over a decade that I've never talked about to anyone.

Script under the cut...