Artist wanted for scifi (cyberpunkish) webcomic

Joel Fagin · Post by **Joel Fagin** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:53 am

In all honesty, I don't think Steve's going to have much luck. That's going to require a very good artist happy to draw lots of technological detail and with a fairly realistic style to reflect the cyberpunk action/adventure setting.

And a common-or-garden-variety artist is hard enough to find. At any rate, Deviant Art is probably the best bet, as usual.

- Joel Fagin

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:12 am

I am going to write a fecking HOW TO guide to getting artists. OH YES.

Blacknarwhal · Post by **Blacknarwhal** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:09 pm

Okay, so I'm Steve, the guy whose work Rob has been so kindly pimping around here looking for an artist.

Seriously, I draw like a cat with a pen in its mouth. It's lousy. Genuinely. And frankly, I think I got a halfway decent plotline going here, and I further think it lends itself well to webcomicry.

Therefore, I've built a scripted version of the first several pages of my novel. Not a whole lot of action here, but there will be plenty of it later. People will get shot at. A continent will be covered in vegetation. There's gonna be fifty billion planes showing up later and a clone of Bill Gates WILL turn into a human / wolfhound hybrid.

He will later be shaved like a circus poodle and put into a packing crate and shipped, postage due, to Chicago.

This is the kind of stuff I've got for anyone who wants to take a run at it to draw. I can guarantee I will NOT be a prick about things like redrawing and all the horror stories you hear about partnerships. I am pretty hands off, because as far as I'm concerned, the artist is the expert in the visual segment.

Especially since I draw like a cat with a pen in its mouth.

Script sample below--contact me if interested.

Int.--casino. Huge room, filled with slot machines that form aisles. Most machines have
a player in front of them. Interspersed throughout are tables for table games, also
heavily populated. Most patrons are wearing formal wear, but some obvious tourists in classic touristy wear, floral shirts and ill-fitting khaki shorts.

Int. front door.

A twentysomething girl, Fesla, of medium height and athletic build in a red Oriental-style
dress with high collar and matching heels. She's wearing round wire-rimmed glasses and has visible fangs, along with two triangular fuzzy ears similar to those of a German shepherd mounted on her scalp, emerging from brown shoulder-length hair.

She's standing standing next to a tall, heavily built twentysomething man in a tuxedo wearing a leather overcoat over the tuxedo, Whally. The overcoat has several strange bulges in the area of its pockets.

The girl looks ill at ease, and the guy surveys the room.

Fesla (fidgeting with her collar)
“Why do they play that stuff? It’s so damn far out of date that they wouldn’t even touch it in a History class,”

Whally (distracted, looking out toward the room)
“They play it because it IS dated. You notice most of the clientele in here, Fuzzy? THEY’RE dated. Take a good long look around. There’s not a face under thirty in here.”

Whally (smirking in acceptance of the scheme)
“What better to play to such a crowd that wants to play high roller than swing tunes and the occasional vocal piece by Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra? Makes perfect sense to me.”

Fesla (grumpily)
“Nnngh. Every last thing they’re playing in here was out of date before my MOTHER was born. This scares me, Whally. Scares me GREEN.”

Whally (sighing and looking down in resignation, then up at Fesla in a longsuffering fashion)
“This isn’t a pleasure cruise, Fuzzy. We’re here for work. We won’t get paid with you complaining about the soundtrack.”

Fesla (glaring)
“Whally. My NAME is Fesla. Not Fuzzy. You should KNOW that by now, number of times I’ve beaten it into you.”

Whally (smirking)
“I call you Fuzzy because it upsets you. Upsetting you forces you to focus on SOMETHING for once in your miserable puppy-on-crack-attention-spanned life. So
then, FUZZY, we have WORK to do.”

Fesla (irked)
“All right all RIGHT!”

Fesla (resigned)
“So just what is it we’re here to do, anyway?”

Whally (looking around the room)
“Microsoft Gaming put out five hundred thousand red notes on some guy’s head and that’ll pay off the DeCarlos. If we can pay off the DeCarlos, then we can be seen in Chicago again without having to worry about bombs in our gas tank.”

Fesla (sulking slightly)
“We COULD just stay out of Chicago. Staying out of Chicago sounds like a very good idea right about now,”

Whally (matter-of-factly, still looking)
“And how long before Don Francisco gets a little too fidgety and goes hunting up his
cash? With several large, angry, armed men?”

Fesla (sulking but agreeing)
“Not long enough—not NEARLY long enough,”

Whally (glaring at Fesla in recrimination)
“Besides, it’s not like we can refuel in Green Bay anymore. You ate a Cheesehead.”

Fesla (grinning sheepishly)
“How could I’ve known that wasn’t real cheese? It SMELLED like real cheese,”

Whally (briskly, having spotted something)
“Your weird dog appetites aside,I think I’ve got our guy.”

Fesla’s head perks up.

Fesla (at attention, scenting the air)
“You mean the guy at the blackjack table making all the clicking sounds?”

Whally (quizzical)
“Clicking sounds?”

Fesla (staring at the target)
“Yeah. Bunch of real random clicks. Three here, five there, one real loud one.”

Whally (conclusion dawning visibly)
“Holy shit. Fuzzy, you found us a card cheat. No wonder Gates-Three wants his ass so bad—and using a clicker, no less.”

Fesla (quizzically)
“Whassa clicker?”

Whally removes a mobile phone from one of the coat's many bulging pockets and hands it to Fesla.

Whally (all business)
“I’ll explain when we got the guy. Watch him like a hawk, Fuzzy. Then when he leaves, pull him close to the van and hit him with that. The electrode in the antenna will knock him out completely for thirty-five seconds. Then we got him.”

Fesla (grinning widely, fangs bared)
“No problem.”

Fesla hurries to the exit.

Whally sighs heavily and leaves for the parking garage.

Ext casino front door. A brawl is visible at the door and Whally is watching it with a mix
of disgust and alarm. Fesla is at the center of it, pounding gleefully on the head of a squat, dumpy man with the mobile phone Whally gave her earlier.

Whally (moaning)
“Oh SHIT no.”

A nondescript, somewhat battered black van with rear doors pulls up near the fight. Whally is in this van.

Whally stops the van and emerges, shouldering his way through the growing crowd watching the one-sided fight unfold.

Whally then seizes the mobile phone from Fesla and jams the antenna into Fesla’s rib cage, triggering the electrode. He slings her over his shoulder and takes the beaten mark by the hand.

Whally (grinning ingratiatingly to the beaten fellow)
“Hey, buddy, you all right?”

Victim (groggy from the beating, getting to his feet)
“Nnnnn…y-yeah…I GUESS, anyway. What the hell was THAT all about?”

Whally (still grinning)
“Come on with me, pal. I’ll take you down to a hospital.”

Victim (beginning to recover)
“That’s not…necessary…”

Victim (suddenly realizing as he sees the van)
“Oh shit no! NO!”

Whally shoves the victim in the back of the van at the last possible second before the victim can run and raise a panic. Whally slams the door shut and slides Fesla’s limp, unconscious form into the shotgun seat, muttering all the while.

Fesla comes to as Whally starts driving away.

Fesla (shaken, clutching her rib cage)
“Oof…Whally, what happened?”

Whally (staring straight ahead, driving, and glaring simultaneously)
“You decided that the best way to subdue our mark would be to beat the shit out of him with the mobile phone I gave you, ignoring the antenna electrode completely.”

Whally (now half grinning)
“Then, when a crowd gathered to watch you administer the smack down, I had to get in there, shock you as though you were a random lunatic, and then carry our boy back there off to the ‘hospital.’”

Victim (from back of van, enraged)
“You FUCKERS!”

Whally (over his shoulder, mocking)
“Oh yeah. But Gates-Three isn’t going to give you five hundred large in reds for OUR safe return. “

Whally (returning his attention to the road)
Hell were you thinking, man? Cheating in a Microsoft Gaming outlet? That’s just nuts. Just. NUTS! And with a CLICKER, no less…don’t most smart card cheats use electronics these days?”

Victim (muttering shamefacedly)
“Figured a clicker would go unnoticed by the Eyes.”

Whally (watching the road and grinning)
“Would have too…if we couldn’t hear the clicks.”

Victim (eyes wide in surprise)
“How the hell…?”

Fesla
“So Whally, just what exactly IS a ‘clicker’?”

Whally (pedantically)
“A clicker is a card-counting device. A card cheat can tap a pressure-sensitive plate on the clicker to keep track of the number of cards dealt. Usually, card cheats keep the clicker in their shoes to keep them hidden. That one real loud click you heard was the clicker responding that it was a good time to double down.”

Fesla, (not quite getting it)
“Oh.”

Tangent · Post by **Tangent** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:10 pm

So. Any suggestions or comments? I'm surprised that no one is leaping at the chance to draw a Bill Gates clone shaved like a circus poodle.

Though that doesn't happen for a little bit in the story...

(and yes, I've seen it. The story has a set beginning, middle, and end.)

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:19 pm

Well, you were told before that it would be hard to find an artist who's free to do another project. This is about as much attention a thread like this gets, anyway.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:20 pm

I am too involoved in drawing Steve Jobs shaved like Malteser right now, which is what I have in my comic.

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:24 pm

I'm now accepting guest art!

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:50 pm

actually more attention than I expected. *l* truthfully what everyone else said, there are other places that are better at finding an artist than this place. hense most people don't chat in this section of the forums unless they are signed up with a comic gen account. and to be signed up with comic gen account most people have a comic.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:47 pm

Twenty bucks a page. I'd do your script justice, but not for a penny less.

Col · Post by **Col** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 8:55 am

Go Buster!

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:15 am

Yeah! Go away!

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:59 am

I like the script, but the "furry ears" bit gives me an idea of what you're aiming for, so you might want to find someone specifically involved with a manga-style. Though that particular visual straight doesn't have the same pizzazz it did 3 years ago, so if you're not aiming for a manga-style comic, you might want to drop that type of nod to them.

I'd apply, but like Buster, I'd want some financial compensation (I wouldn't charge as much as him, but I would expect a bit of freedom with the visuals, and when that happens I get... well, weird.)

Tangent · Post by **Tangent** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:13 pm

*gets out his walking stick*

I remember when we used to create comics for the joy of creation, and knowing we might have a dozen people reading!

And Keenspace would crash every week or so, and we didn't have STrRedWolf or Kisai or the others around to fix things and we had to bug Gav himself instead... *shakes his cane crochetely*

Damn, that was back in the days when Framed!!! updated regularly and was funny and innovative... *sigh* I miss Damonk.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:17 pm

Tangent wrote:*gets out his walking stick*

I remember when we used to create comics for the joy of creation, and knowing we might have a dozen people reading!

We still do.

in fact, pretty much every person who's posted here is in the process of making a comic just for the joy of creation and a piddling handful of readers, myself included.

And since we're all doing that we're less than inclined to draw something that isn't ours, for someone we don't know, for no compensation.

Tangent · Post by **Tangent** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:33 pm

To be honest, I know of artists who give up on their comics because they cannot do a decent plot. I know of artists who looked for a writer because they felt that they should focus more on the art and let a good writer deal with the story itself.

Heck, Cool Cat Studios had the cartoonist, Gisèle Lagacé, join up with T. Campbell, having him doing the writing while she focused on the art.

Not everyone can write. Not everyone can draw.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:43 pm

Perhaps, but there's no call to criticize us for not wanting to participate.

Heck, just think. We're all people doing comics already: therefore we all (at least believe) can both draw and write well enough to satisfy ourselves otherwise we wouldn't be doing comicing in the first place.

Which is exactly why (as has been said before) you should go to places which have a lot of artists who are not currently engaged in writing projects, like deviantart or similar.

And even if someone did want to start a second project or drop the one they're doing we really have no reason to sign up with someone who is a complete stranger to us. We have no idea of his ability to keep a story going, we have no idea of his reliability, and aside from one post he's only spoken to us through an intermediary.

The Neko · Post by **The Neko** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:52 pm

That or we have no interest in the story whatsoever. Can't blame us for that.

Tangent · Post by **Tangent** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:38 pm

orion wrote:Perhaps, but there's no call to criticize us for not wanting to participate.

My apologies if you thought I was criticizing. It was not intended as such.

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:43 pm

Basically what orion said. If I weren't doing my own project which is important to me, I could do it without compensation--but that would also come with pretty much all reins on visual style, unquestioningly

. Maybe I have trouble seeing it because I do a lot visually, but I can't imagine your friend just submitting to someone else's style. The writer typically isn't just in it for their good plot and snappy dialogue; they have a "vision."

I'm guessing by this defense though, Tangent, that your friend doesn't have the resources to financially compensate anyone, correct?

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:51 pm

Tangent wrote:To be honest, I know of artists who give up on their comics because they cannot do a decent plot. I know of artists who looked for a writer because they felt that they should focus more on the art and let a good writer deal with the story itself.

Heck, Cool Cat Studios had the cartoonist, Gisèle Lagacé, join up with T. Campbell, having him doing the writing while she focused on the art.

Not everyone can write. Not everyone can draw.

Actually, what's the point of this banter? All of that is true, but not many of such artists reside around here, for some reason. If there is artist is need of writer who wants to draw this story around here, your incouragement won't be neccesary.