In the FUTURE....

...We'll all wear fancy futuristic clothing. Why does this matter? Easy, because I want to make my comic strip take place at some vague point in the future, but I've been having a number of issues with how to go about it. At first I wanted to have the future be kinda weird, with bizarre robot characters, post-industrial accident zombies, and aliens or something... But then I realized, I can't do that. The basic premise of my comic strip is that the main character (Adam) is tremendously bored with reality, and has to struggle between his parents desires for him to become a productive member of society, and his own desires to tune the world out. Why would he be bored with zombie-mutants and crazy robots though? He wouldn't... but the thing about the future is, I'm gonna wager that the future will be more steril, safe, and rule filled than ever before.

You see, I've worked in the sign business for a while... and one guarantee is, rule signs always get longer...

That being said, how much have houses changed in the past thirty years? You can still recognize them... So how will I show that my comic takes place in the future, without putting it in the title? Easy... Change the clothing. I'm not saying that all of a sudden jump suits will be all the rage, and I don't think t-shirts will disappear... but damn it, this is a comic! EXAGGERATE!

I'm thinking most of the robots in the future will be more like roomba, so if I want crazy robot characters, I'll have to make them Adam's imaginary friends. I think the school teacher might be a robot though... How better to accentuate the absolute boredom that is school, than with a robot teaching pre-programmed routines?

A Robot in Your Brain

I'm still quite concerned about creating a robot character that only Adam can see... I'm afraid it won't be easy for people to understand. One way to clarify that the little robot serves as Adam's robotic sense of responsibility is simply to make him look like Adam... A smaller appendage-less version of Adam (that is also a robot.)

After taking some time to start writing, it looks like my comic is becoming more kid-centric than was my original intention... I fear I will not actually have six different primary characters after all... But rather, one primary character (Adam) and a motley collection of secondary characters. What can I do? I might as well go with the flow.

I think I may have finally gotten to the point that I've worked out enough of my comic that I can start creating strips now. I figure it's a good idea to learn how to work out problems in my strip while still trying to keep up a production schedule... That could be quite necessary if I ever want to try to achieve the goal of syndication.

The Remote Control Experience

How does a computer processor wired directly into your brain and operated by a separate device tend to interact with you? Does it make you feel things? Effect your impulses? Or perhaps it alters your perception of reality?

I think the more important question is, how do you make the reader realize what is happening to the character? I'm toying with the idea of Adam's remote control interacting with him through an avatar, or some sort of character that only Adam can see... Not a figment of Adam's imagination, but more of a virtual interface representative of Adam's Remote Control Device (damn I need a friggin' name for that thing!)

Should I make it into a character? I think so, because I like the idea of it fighting with Adam's imagination... I'll need to work on a visual means of communicating to the reader that this character is actually an aspect of the Remote, and not an individual character that everyone else can see...

So far I've decided to make it a little floating robot looking thing, sort of reminiscent of the little angel and devil characters that are pretty common in cartoons (although I don't go for the morality play.)
Maybe I should try to make it into more of a hologram? How do you draw a hologram in black and white? I'm loath to use much grey... eh, what can you do?

I wonder if I'm wasting my time with all this complex scenario bullshit... There's very little space available for words and drawings... How much subtlety will be able to come across? How many times can I diverge from the normal comic set-up of talking pet and person?

I guess it doesn't matter though... I don't really know what else to do. I'm just so bored of the standard comic, I'm bored of pop-culture references, and I'm bored of the "legacies"... So I guess I just gotta see what I can do.

The Personification of Imagination... Sort of.

I like to personify the imagination of Adam (the remote controlled boy.) I don't know why... I just sort of think it's funny to make a thought bubble that actually effects the world around it. I figure it would also add some conflict between Adam's run away imagination, and his parental control skull cap (which I really need a name for...) I don't know how I'm going to work out this conflict yet, but the remote control is supposed to represent pressure of becoming a functioning and productive member of society, while the imagination is part that doesn't care much of all that stuff. The imagination will be a good device for providing the figurative jokes, and I can imagine some epic struggles between a wayward imagination and the purpose driven remote control... When I say epic, I mean as epic as is possible in the limited space of the printed cartoon of course.


The only problem I'm facing is the difficulty of using an unfamiliar narrative device... What if people don't understand what is happening? It's a bit unusual to see a thought bubble that doesn't have words in it, and instead is providing some sort of action in the comic strip. This could lead to confusion... but I think I'll sort it out somehow.

Oh, and the other character in the drawing is Fred, Adam's friend... I'm afraid he might be a little too stereotypically nerdy... But then again, supposedly geek chic is in fashion. The other little sketches are robots... they don't play a crucial role in my comic strip, I just like doodling robots.