Senior Project

Goodwill

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2004
Messages
12,818
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Not a lot of you know this, but I am a senior in college and I'm studying art and graphic design. For my university's art department, the final semester of your senior year is spent developing a "senior body" of work that will be displayed in a student art show. I am planning on writing a script and drawing out a 16-24 page comic book. I've met with several professors and I've gotten enough praise but I wan to take everything into consideration before even writing the story out. Seeing as how you guys are all comic book fans and know what makes a good comic story as I was wondering if we could spit around ideas that might be helpful to me.

What I want to do is come up with an iconic hero. I don't expect him to square up to the heavy hitters (Spidey, Batman) but I want to know what makes a hero iconic. I know that certain questions need to be asked -- Why is he a hero? What is his M.O.? etc.

I would also like to concentrate on the action and the drama. What would be a good way of keeping focused on that without having all the senselessness of a Chuck Norris or Stephen Seagal movie?

Pretty much, if Bendis/Millar/whoever was asking for suggestions from fans, what would you tell them?
 
Interesting project. I would usually go with the classic normal guy gets powers. And have the Peter Parker dynamic of him not being the ideal hero that he has a learning curve so that when he accomplishes a heroic feat it's a big moment for the character.

As for Iconic: name, logo, and costume design are extremely important. For all of them you want it to be simple and memorable. Also you don't want them to resemble any existing character too much or people would think it's just a rip off. The logo and costume should be fairly simple so people will immediately remember it.

As for action, you should make his power level and/or experience pretty low so that things seem more challenging. You want your character to work for a victory. That will get an audience more involved if they think he can't win and they'll cheer him on.
 
I think you're right about the icon bit, but I'm not sure if I can pull off a Peter Parker-esque hero. Don't you think it's been done to death?
 
All you would have to is gibe it a unique spin. Look at BKV's The Hood - he was like Peter Parker but did the wrong things for the right reasons.

Also, the better the villain, the better the hero.
 
You make a good point. That's why I like the concept of Millar's Nemesis deal because the hero and the villain are one and the same, evidently. I might try and put a spin on "the man in the costume" story and make it "can he be trusted?" or something...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top