Adaptation Idea

[nolan]

Okay, heres my idea.

I'd like to get as many of the writers on here as possible to try to work together and adapt a story in to comic form as a team. Kind of a team writing project like 52.

Any ideas for a story to do?

Or anyone interested i this?

[davidaccampo]

An adaptation of what...? Or are you talking about a bunch of writers sitting around and creating an original work and then scripting it as a comic?

I'd be down with that, though I imagine that online it would be similar to the whole "chain story" thing that's been done over on newsarama.

To be more organic, it seems like you'd have to have a group of maaaaaybe four writers at the most, and perhaps an editor who is ONLY editing and not writing. That way we could generate basic story concepts and themes together (in roundtable discussions), and then hand them off to one another -- so that it's a little more elaborate than a chain story.

Seems like it'd be a fun attempt, though. It's similar to the way Jeremy and I work on scripts, but with more people.

On a separate note, I'm putting together another idea that Jeremy and I are working on -- it's...kiiiiinda similar to the way 52 is put together, but it's something that I think could work really well in the online format.

I'm calling it "the tandem novel."

Basically, we have two writers writing serialized pulp stories in blogs, but they're set in the same "world". A common event kicks off both stories (even if it's only tangential to the story), but each writer is free to develop their character's story any way they want. However, as it is the same world, if I introduce a character into my story, Jeremy could easily pull said character into his story.

It's very familiar to anyone who's read a lot of "shared continuity" style comics, but as a set of serialized online novels? I think it could be very cool.

Here are a couple of links to what we've set up:

www.laughingmadscribes.com/lilith
www.laughingmadscribes.com/vaughn

[nolan]

Ill check those things out. Id definatley be interested but I'm not the greatest prose writer.

Erm...actually I was thinking that we start with a public domain text (say Canterbury Tales) and then work on adapting it in to comic form as a team.

[davidaccampo]

nolan said:

Ill check those things out. Id definatley be interested but I'm not the greatest prose writer.

Erm...actually I was thinking that we start with a public domain text (say Canterbury Tales) and then work on adapting it in to comic form as a team.

Oh, OK, so you were literally talking about an adaptation. Hmmm...I dunno. That'd be interesting, but I'm not sure what the benefit would be for a whole team to adapt an already existing work. In 52, you can see that it works a bit like a Television show...multiple threads running, a writer's room where they all discuss where it's going to go...it seems a lot of the magic is derived from the group-mind pushing the story into new directions.

That wouldn't really come into play with an adaptation, as you'd already have the roadmap, so it would be more like how each party would choose to adapt the text.

With the Tandem example, I was just citing something similar that we're doing. I wasn't suggesting that you write this as prose. Just suggesting that I think it'd be more interesting to -- as a group -- come up with an original premise and then let various writers handle various "issues" or whatever ends up working. It could still be a comics script.

My tandem novel thing was just an example of what we're starting on our site...

[nolan]

True.

Okay, well do you think that we might try a tandem writing project for PT?

Not sure how that would work for a creator owned magazine though.

[davidaccampo]

Hmmmm...It could be interesting, though...

PT's an anthology. What if you had an issue where an event happens...it could be anything. A city blacks out for one hour. An alien spaceship lands in times square. The dead begin to rise. Anything like that.

We get a bunch of writers together and hammer out a basic concept. But then each writer individual writes their own characters as they react to this event. You could have anything from sci-fi to magic to crime to super-heroes...as long as it can believably exist in the city, time, and situation that we set up. That way you get a flavor of continuity, but everyone still owns the characters in their respective stories, etc.

I dunno...but that seems like it could be fun...

[nolan]

davidaccampo said:

Hmmmm...It could be interesting, though...

PT's an anthology. What if you had an issue where an event happens...it could be anything. A city blacks out for one hour. An alien spaceship lands in times square. The dead begin to rise. Anything like that.

We get a bunch of writers together and hammer out a basic concept. But then each writer individual writes their own characters as they react to this event. You could have anything from sci-fi to magic to crime to super-heroes...as long as it can believably exist in the city, time, and situation that we set up. That way you get a flavor of continuity, but everyone still owns the characters in their respective stories, etc.

I dunno...but that seems like it could be fun...

Honestly, im not sure tight continuity and creator owned ahve ever worked.

And, honestly, in the future, we may try something like this. But we'd rather get the anthology off the ground first.

I was thinking more about a team written anthology feature.

[davidaccampo]

I wouldn't recommend it for the start of PT.

But it would be a good experiment, and it would set you apart from other anthologies.

"not sure creator-owned and tight continuity have ever worked"? I don't buy that. There's absolutely no reason that those two elements can't co-exist. In fact, that's exactly the impetus to DO such a thing.

It may be that you're thinking too much along the lines of where the industry is and where it's been.

Think about it like this: you and a bunch of your writer friends set out to do a story, where you each write an 8-page story set during one hour where the entire city of __________ is experiencing a black-out. Every story is its own -- you guys are all putting out your book together. But the common event allows each writer to find a point of inspiration. And further, if you have a writer's meeting where everyone pitches their ideas, you'll find that people will probably LIKE playing off of one another, and it will drive them to new heights of creativity.

Again, i wouldn't recommend it to START PT, unless you want that to be the running THEME of the anthology (which may actually be a good idea), but I think that if you set up a group of writers and pitched them such an idea, you'd find that people would have a lot of fun.

[nolan]

davidaccampo said:

I wouldn't recommend it for the start of PT.

But it would be a good experiment, and it would set you apart from other anthologies.

"not sure creator-owned and tight continuity have ever worked"? I don't buy that. There's absolutely no reason that those two elements can't co-exist. In fact, that's exactly the impetus to DO such a thing.

It may be that you're thinking too much along the lines of where the industry is and where it's been.

Think about it like this: you and a bunch of your writer friends set out to do a story, where you each write an 8-page story set during one hour where the entire city of __________ is experiencing a black-out. Every story is its own -- you guys are all putting out your book together. But the common event allows each writer to find a point of inspiration. And further, if you have a writer's meeting where everyone pitches their ideas, you'll find that people will probably LIKE playing off of one another, and it will drive them to new heights of creativity.

Again, i wouldn't recommend it to START PT, unless you want that to be the running THEME of the anthology (which may actually be a good idea), but I think that if you set up a group of writers and pitched them such an idea, you'd find that people would have a lot of fun.

I think maybe if we're successful, we may try a series like that. but, honestly, we have enough on our plate from this.

[davidaccampo]

nolan said:

I think maybe if we're successful, we may try a series like that. but, honestly, we have enough on our plate from this.

Fair enough -- that's the one thing I worry about for you guys...PT is a lot on your plate, and it demands a lot of focus and follow-through.

But I actually do think that would be a fun thing in a future issue, if you can get to it. I can't think of another anthology that's tried something like that. Sure, there are anthology where every story is based on a certain theme or something similar...but I can't think of one where every story maintains a common event. Well, unless you count something like a 9/11 anthology. I guess that'd be the closest thing to what I'm thinking.

[nolan]

Actually, I think there have been thematic anthologies before (though not many in comics).

I'd rather focus on that.

But I still think the idea of a team written feature would be cool fi we could get a few people on board.

[davidaccampo]

Oh, don't get me wrong, there have been thematic anthologies aplenty...Four Letter Worlds springs immediately to mind.

But you separate yourself by making not just a thematic anthology, but by setting the stories in the same continuity. Just for one issue.

That's something I don't usually see. If you create an anthology where my, say, hard-boiled PI could exist in the same world as your, say, modern-day magician...and they each have a different reaction to the common event..then you've got an anthology that is unlike anything else.

the part that really interests me is what happens when you get a 52-style writer's room together. Now you're telling me about how your magician is going to blow up a building to stop some demons from getting out, and I say..."ooh, my hard-boiled PI can be involved in the ramifications of that explosion because it puts an obstacle between him and the guy he's following." Each is still in their own story, but there's a common series of events..as though they're right around the corner from one another.

I'd love to read something like that, if it's well-done.

Then again, we're the only two even having this discussion, so maybe there's not even a demand for such a type of storytelling.