Sunday, April 24, 2011

Early Concept Sketches

Here's a first concept sketch to share of my story's hero, Honovi and his dog Noku.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Noorius I was once called.

"Noorius I was once called." This is the title and the first line for my part of the anthology. It will focus on a side-character from a larger story I am developing about a warring angel inadvertently trapped in our modern-day world; and the repercussions her existence effect on modern society, media, religion, and politics, etc. But the short story of this side character, Noorius (a former warring angel living among humans on Earth), will take place in 1850's America. He reflects on his attempt to adapt and live as a human; even marrying and having a child. But unlike most humans, he can still clearly see through the dimensional barriers placed on Earth. He sees the other creatures, gargantuan and petite, that observe and swarm around the humans affecting their lives. Now human, he can do little but observe as well. In fact, a century of guilt and complacency has penetrated his heart and mind to the point where he has striven to simply find some measure of happiness on this Earth by trying to live as a human. Since he has lost all power to do what warring angels do, he has eventually found peace and contentment in the novelties of human life. But his complacency is challenged when he begins to see a dark figure, one of these other creatures, lingering around his young child.



Thursday, April 21, 2011

Brown Horse, Black Cow


This is a story I've mused about for sometime. Some years ago my family and I attended church out in the country. Every Sunday we would pass by a spacious pasture with a brown horse and black cow in it. It was evident the two were inseparable as week after week we'd see them grazing together in different parts of the field. One Sunday we were shocked to find them on opposite sides of the pasture. We speculated on the events which led to their rift. Was there a misunderstanding? An argument? Had the neighboring livestock gossiped and driven them apart? My short story will fill in the blanks. ~Mario

Monday, April 18, 2011

Rich Lee

Rough idea: a boy looking for his dog with a current events twist.  I like the idea, but there's a few areas I need to massage over and fine tweak.  Will post stuff up as it comes.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

From Mach

With a nod to “The Naked Prey”, we find a chase already under way.

Stumbling from Dinosaurs to giant man-eating plants, our protagonist is being pursued in the run of his life. Out of breath and mind racing, his only hope is to run deeper into the dense dark jungle…and just perhaps turn the obstacles dead-ahead obstacles into a slight dangerous advantage to distance him from armed pursuers. Can our adventurer stay ahead of certain death? Who is he and where can a place like this exist? Why is he running? What Is this a nightmare or a terrible reality?

Stay tuned for the exciting next chapter!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Rising of Reoled

Reoled is a futuristic warrior, who suddenly had to exist on the other side – on the enemy side – being forced to understand them. He goes through a series of awakenings, for example suddenly opens his eyes and he is in the middle of a battle (medieval style), fighting and killing his old best friend, who's face in agony gets planted on his memory; then his memory blanks off until the next awakening happens. His "mind" has been kidnapped and taken away on an unimaginable journey. I want to present a series of scenes 6 total that will move through the warrior's new persona's life cycle (re-birth to death). There is many ways in which I could approach this story (scenes of the future supported by scenes of the past) but due to a page limit, I want to concentrate on the short life the futuristic warrior gets to live, I want the reader to experience the world he is living in and the warrior's strive to make "peace" which is the only way to save his friends and family on the other side.

White Lady

Hello all. The story I'm developing is based on the White Lady stories I've been told as a kid by my older cousins who were born in the Philippines. After some research, it seems many cultures have stories based on the "White Lady." An excerpt from Wikipedia, "White Ladies are popular ghost story topics in the Philippines. Along with other Philippine mythological creatures and ghostly beings like the Manananggal, Tiyanak, Kapre and Wak-Wak, White Ladies are often used as subjects that tend to convey horror and mystery usually aimed at young children for storytelling purposes. Sightings of white ladies are common among folk from around the country, and usually every town and barrio has its own "White Lady" story to tell." I remember being super scared when they told of sightings and such...so...hopefully I can carry that over. I may be a little late on the next deadline, as I will be in Hawaii for a week, but it'll be on my mind...and so the process begins. Bwahahahahaha.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Religious Debate


A man stands at the door of another man's house having just knocked. The man inside has the door opened a crack, saying - "You can come in, but only if you promise not to talk about church."
He obliges and enters. They sit silently in the living room in front of the fire place (the story is told symbolically with no words) and once a certain message has been conveyed, the man visiting stands up and says, "All right, see you later then!" and quickly leaves.

And so it begins...

Visual Remix

About four years ago, I started toying with the idea of creating a "visual remix" - a sequential visual representation of a song, kind of like a music video in graphic novel form. I know an artist who did a cool song-as-comic long time ago, but I want mine to be a bit more free-form. Abstract elements and textures will represent patterns and sounds of the music, in addition to the characters carrying the story. I wanted to do it with a Depeche Mode song, but never got around to it.

I was at a concert last month, where an artist from Denmark, Oh Land, opened. I'd been hearing some buzz around them from friends who'd been following the headliner - the buzz was warranted! Her music is a visual feast! An eclectic blend of synth electronica and R&B-inspired beats and a silky almost jazz-style vocal.. delicious.

I love fairy tales, and have been mulling on a Red Riding Hood-inspired story called "La Luna" for years. It's a dark love story with dysfunctional royalty, legends gone awry and three little pig-witches. At the concert, one of Oh Land's songs struck me like a two-by-four: it could be the ending theme if this story were animated. It's a haunting but magical sounding tune called "Wolf & I." For YARNS, I'm thinking I'll create a "visual remix" of this song using the characters from this story.

Watch/listen to the song:

Oh Land- Wolf & I (Live) from Oh Land Music on Vimeo.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

The Way of Animal Powers!


Hey all, this is installment one of the process toward my contribution for the YARNS book and beyond. For awhile now I've been baking this idea of a world where these gifted, shaman-like people unite their souls with a twin animal spirit giving them amazing gifts and powers related to their twin beast. Think strongly Hayao Miyazaki inspired (particularly Princess Mononoke) with a dash of Naruto. I have a bit of a mini-series in mind that I'll continue as a web comic, so one challenge with my YARNS contribution will be finding a logical "to be continued…" point at the end.

So far the story stars the young Honovi, a carpenter's apprentice and his work dog Noku. He and Noku are gathering wood in the forest for his master when Noku spots a strange apparition that he can't help but chase after. Honovi follows in hot pursuit and when he catches up he finds that he's no longer in his forest and Noku's getting a belly rub from a beautiful forest spirit named Sylvia.

I'll leave it there for now as I have have many more pieces to figure out and still need to develop the characters to give them a voice. I'm feeling pretty stoked about my story and really looking forward to hearing what the rest of you have in mind! Until then, excelsior! Oh wait, that line's taken.

- Mike A.