1412 Log Pose.

Carol seems to have inherited some of my pun making skills. XD

I made one of my typical off handed puns the other day on twitter and instead of just begrudging laughs and groans I got messages that people actually wanted to read the story.

I want to write a comic about a pregnant knight on a quest to kill the one who killed the baby’s father, called Bump In The Knight.

When I say junk like that I often do actually have story ideas, but I know I don’t have time to actually make them happen. I can barely draw the stuff I have to draw just to keep the comic going. It occurred to me, however, that I could pay someone to work for me on this. So what I want to know is what is it going to take to pay someone to draw this? Let’s just say it’s a standard comic format 23 or so pages for the first issue. What is the standard per page payment for an artist and what are you actually willing to be paid for something that may come to nothing?

I’m willing to entertain any art style, but I like manga. Clean, black and white. It needs to be digital, or of a high enough quality that it could be digitally colored later if one would choose so to do. In my mind I’d like something along the lines of Vinland Saga, but would tolerate something like Attack On Titan, even though I think the style is sloppy and a bit shit. Like I said though, I’m willing to entertain any style that could tell the story.

The story would be relatively serious but there will be some humor, as in life there is humor even in the face of the abhorrent. Basic idea: After her husband to be is killed the woman sets out for revenge in spite of her pregnancy. She eventually meets a younger boy who convinces her to let him be her squire. They then hunt the assassin together while trying to find out why he was hired at all.

Anyone who wants to take up this job would need to be capable of drawing convincing fights with various types of weapons. Also scenery, interior and exterior backgrounds, ect. If no one appears who can accomplish this task we can all just forget about it and chalk it up to dreaming bigger than we can achieve.

Once I have an idea of what this will cost maybe I’ll do a kickstarter, or something.

I’m going to answer these questions in the blog instead of hiding them in the comments.

1. You mentioned “issues”; is this going to be published solely on paper, or will it be posted to the web, with each “issue” being a single storyline of set length? The latter, but a print option is not off the table

Do you have a ballpark idea of how many issues you want to do, and how frequently you want to release those issues? (A bi-monthly published comic? A weekly comic on the web?) Anything else we should know about deadlines? No, I just wanted to see if there was enough interest to try anything at all. If it does happen I would expect a relatively fast turn around.

2. How much of the comic’s focus do you expect to be on action? Character development? Humor? If you could compare the tone of this comic to another webcomic, tv show, or movie, what would be the closest, to give a rough idea? (I hope you don’t cut back on the humor too much with such a delightfully punny name for a title!) I put examples in the original post. Typical manga style seriousness and drama with comedy mixed in as seems appropriate.

3. How much blood/gore in these action scenes on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being “Disney Movie”, 10 being “Game of Thrones”)? 11

4. How historically accurate do you want this? Ren Faire accurate or by-the-history-book? If it’s the former, will there be magic in this universe? Historical accuracy is not important. The world will function basically by RPG rules.

5. Do you have an idea of how you want your characters to look, in terms of age, hair color, height, etc.? Not at this point. Only nebulous ideas.

6. Are you looking to hire only one artist, or will you divide up duties between more than one artist (A penciler and an inker, or a background artist and a character artist)? If they come as a well functioning team I’ll hire as many as it takes, if the money is there to make it work.

7. Will the artist(s) also do work for banner ads or merchandise? There will be no merch. Any advertising will likely come from the already produced work, but if more is needed I would go to the artist.

8. What’s the best way to contact you if we’re interested? E-mail? Twitter? This forum?
The site’s email betweenfailures (at) Hotmail (dot) com

39 Comments

I feel like Pregnant swordplay would be a very interesting story device, not to mention the problems of dealing with armor while sporting the bulge, so to speak. I’m intrigued by the idea, so long as it captures the struggle of pregnancy throughout the revenge quest properly. I think that’s one of the big focal points of the story that you’ll have to nail just the right amount of exposure to, to be both relatable and realistic but not too all-encompassing.

Your comic idea sounds really cool. As long as the pregnancy was appointed for properly (i.e. no back flips at 8 months), I think our could be a compelling story. I don’t know anyone who does that sort of work, so I can’t help you there. Good lock with it!

Got some follow-up questions about this comic proposal:

1. You mentioned “issues”; is this going to be published solely on paper, or will it be posted to the web, with each “issue” being a single storyline of set length? Do you have a ballpark idea of how many issues you want to do, and how frequently you want to release those issues? (A bi-monthly published comic? A weekly comic on the web?) Anything else we should know about deadlines?

2. How much of the comic’s focus do you expect to be on action? Character development? Humor? If you could compare the tone of this comic to another webcomic, tv show, or movie, what would be the closest, to give a rough idea? (I hope you don’t cut back on the humor too much with such a delightfully punny name for a title!)

3. How much blood/gore in these action scenes on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being “Disney Movie”, 10 being “Game of Thrones”)?

4. How historically accurate do you want this? Ren Faire accurate or by-the-history-book? If it’s the former, will there be magic in this universe?

5. Do you have an idea of how you want your characters to look, in terms of age, hair color, height, etc.?

6. Are you looking to hire only one artist, or will you divide up duties between more than one artist (A penciler and an inker, or a background artist and a character artist)?

7. Will the artist(s) also do work for banner ads or merchandise?

8. What’s the best way to contact you if we’re interested? E-mail? Twitter? This forum?

I’m interested in this project, and definitely looking forward to finding out more! :-)

It can’t be too historically accurate, because in medieval times 1) women weren’t allowed to be knights, 2) extra-marital sex was an official no-no, to the point that 3) pregnant women weren’t allowed to go galavanting around the countryside. These kinds of things, which are common in our culture, were practically unheard-of in theirs (well, the extra-marital sex was reasonably common among the gentry, but had to be kept a secret. So definitely no showing-off of unmarried baby bumps.)

But then magic isn’t all that historical, either, so maybe my comments are entirely superfluous.

She seems so concerned in the first panel. I find it strangely adorable.

I wish you best of luck with the “Bump in the Knight” comic. It seems really interesting and I would read it given the chance. OR WOULD I!?!?!

Yes. I would.

Going rate for comics is about $100 a page for pro work, but I’m sure you can find people to work for cheaper. Just remember, you get what you pay for.

How about this webcomics art style http://www.amyachronicles.com/archives/comic/09292009

and some action scenes from the same webcomic http://www.amyachronicles.com/archives/comic/5-65

That would be a good match.

What about Randy from Something Positive? His style could work if it wasn’t a really intensely realistic comic. I’m sure he appreciates me mentioning him. Surely he doesn’t have anything else going on. (Just kidding RK-please don’t put out a contract on me….)

He’s part of the cabal that doesn’t like me, so that’s probably not going to work.

There’s a cabal of people who don’t like you?

History lesson, yes?

Honestly, I doubt he actually knows who I am. Cartooning is just like any profession. There are people who don’t associate with those who are lower in the ranks than themselves. By most standards I am not worth responding to, since I’m not super popular. Which is fine. Its just more fun to paint those people as actively disliking me rather than not knowing, or caring, who I am.

Okay I have to know more about this business about other webcomic artists not liking you. First Willis, now Randy. Youll have to tell me sometime.

Im glad someone has a negative opinion about Attack on Titan or Attack on Taste as I like to call it, I keep seeing the fandom at every convention I go to. The whole series just seems repulsive to me, but not as much as those tacky uniforms, am I right? Hey-yo!

I think the uniforms are nifty and the show fun to watch. I think the story is contrived as all hell, though.

As for, “Bump in the Knight”:

My view: in any history of a country, or land w/ people on it- A knight, or a knight-trainer-man, could always [go criminal], +train your girl/woman to be a knight, because 1) criminals can do whatever they want, + maybe keep the training a secret, if the trainer desires, and 2) he, (or she?) could do it- because he/she would get lots of money, or some other form of big reward, for the knightly training.

That’s just my two cents.

I have one question left:
Are you ging to make a script, which the drawing/writing guy(s) need tot follow, or is it more going to be like “yo, you have about twenty pages left make this happen somewhere and be free!” Whereafter everybody runs away towards the horizon?

(Sorry for thuis damn auto correct, it is Hella annoying)

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