New and Old Art

New "Amanda" character sketch

Old "Amanda healing Moccasin" sketch

"Amanda and Emily" sketch

Schism: History

So What is this comic book all about? 

This comic book idea came to me back in 1992 when I moved from my home town of Libby, Montana to go to art school in Denver, Colorado. Living in the city and seeing homeless people on the streets was the original motivation for the “Amanda” character (originally “Lisa”). At that point in my life, I felt like every good intention I had turned into drama. I think you call that being in your 20s. So this idea sparked in my mind for a story about a homeless teen who had the power to heal people and do good by others. But for all the good she did, an equal amount of evil came from her actions. 

One example of that in the original script is a scene involving a homeless Native American named “Moccasin” who is deathly ill. Amanda stumbles upon him in the night and puts her hands on his head. A glow surrounds them both, and the Indian looks up in amazement. He is completely healthy. A few pages later in the story, Moccasin is gunned down in a drive by shooting. This is the structure of Amanda’s powers/ curse. She has a big heart and wants to save the world, but ends up causing more harm than good.

I started writing this story much like you would write a novel. I did not care about how long each chapter was, I just wrote it. Now I am working on converting the story and each chapter into a comic book containing 32 pages. The original story was a total of 16 chapters, so this may turn into roughly 16 issues (32 pages each).

The Evolution of a Story

Over the years as I continue to flesh out my world and the message I want to communicate, several major changes in my story have altered its course. The setting has changed from “present day” downtown Denver in the summer to Denver after an apocalyptic catastrophe that has shattered the Earth, sending it into an eternal winter. With this devastation, all of the evil that was thought to be myth returns to plague what is left of humanity. Vampires (Shadows), Werewolves (Howlers) and Zombies (Creakers), along with many other unnatural creatures roam what is left of the planet. Changing the setting altered the direction of the story, and opened it up for new possibilities and a stronger, more emotional ending for the book. I no longer have drive by shootings and things of that nature involving my characters. 

The themes that I have tackled have increased immensely. I feel there is more depth to the characters and the plot with this final rewrite. I guess I am trying to relay in my story my core beliefs on how the world works (or could work) by plunging my characters into the worst of hardships and seeing how they overcome these challenges. Some of these themes involve religion, relationships, how we see our world, the environment, the hero’s quest, how we pass on our strengths and weaknesses to our children, addiction and abuse.

Why is it titled “Schism: Generations”? 

The word schism is generally used to describe a church or religion that is divided. Buddhism has a story about a church that became split down the middle concerning their beliefs. Not being able agree on the argument or come to a compromise, the church split into two separate houses of worship. A similar story is told in the Christian Bible. That theme on a religious level is evaluated through the characters “The Lord”, “Befana” and “Saint Lucifer” (representing God and Christianity, the Goddess and Wicca, and the evil antagonist that causes a divide between the religions).

I decided to break the word down further into something divided. A division. Amanda is divided by her power/ curse. She wants to help, knowing that if she does, it will cause more hurt. Also, there is a division and breaking in the relationships in the story involving multiple characters.

I like to think of “Schism” as my brand, a title for many other stories to come (for example, “Schism: The Night Shelly Came Back” and “Schism: The Werewolf Diaries”). These stories will all take place in the same world that I have created for “Generations”, keeping the continuity in tact for the history and time line.

The “Generations” tag represents the three main female characters in this story. Starting with Emily and pieces of her broken life, the story continues with her daughter Amanda. Later in the story, after tragedy strikes, the story moves forward with Amanda’s daughter Jen.

A Work In Progress

I have been reworking my "Schism: Generations" graphic novel. Previously I wrote the story in a random fashion, much like you would right a novel. Each chapter varied in size. I decided to do a rewrite and fit each chapter into 32 pages (a single comic book issue). I have completed the refined script and story boards for the first issue, and I feel the story is much stronger now. There is a better scenes of setting, character and plot development.

I started to sketch out some pages for the book, then decided that it would be better if I complete the script first.

Inspiration

FALLCON ‘09

I went to Fallcon, a comic book convention in Saint Paul, MN. I spent hours looking at artwork, talking to comic creators and taking pictures. It was very inspirational. One of my favorite moments was talking to creator Anthony Hary. At the Minicon he drew a picture of Wolverine for me. This time I picked up a copy of “Brethren -Beginnings”. This is a great book. In the video, I used a song from my friend Joe Randolph. Thanks Joe!

Connnected

2009 is now behind me, and it is time to move forward. The later half of my year did not go so well. The new year brings a fresh start with a recommitment and refocus on the things in my life that are truly important to me.

Connected

This new year I will be focussing on the connections that I made in 2009. These connections include key people to network or work with on my business and art ideas, my previous scattered business plans that are now coming together as one connected plan and my new sense of direction.

3 Otters Enterprises will be divided into three sections. Services, Products and Teaching will all be connected and feed into one another.

1) Services will include Freelance Design & Art. You know, the usual business cards, web sites and illustrations. I am working up a price list per item or an hourly rate (depending on the project).

2) Products. These include Schism: Generations Graphic Novel, Letters From Libby Graphic Novel, Art Supplies, Merchandise and How To eBooks for art, computers and online business.


This video is the beginning ideas for the Graphic Novel “Schism: Generations”

3) The third part to my company will be Teaching. I will offer art classes and instruction.

There are a lot more details to this business plan, but for this blog at this time I will keep it simple. My first items to tackle will be the “services” (freelance work) and graphic novels. After these have been established, then I will move forward with the next items (the rest of the “products” ideas).