| Trajedi Part 1: The Concept
3 a : a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces b : dramatic state, effect, or quality As you can see Drama is more clearly defined than comedy. Drama is conflict. So then what is comedy? A lack of conflict? Hardly. Technically, a man slipping on a banana is a conflict; gravity vs. balance. So to further educate one must search harder to define comedy; I simply looked up the word comic.
Now Comedy is more defined. It is something that causes laughter. You must ask yourself which one appeals to you, which comes easiest to you idea wise, conflict or amusement? You have hurdled a large obstacle in your concept, the tone. Now you must move on to the dreaded five W’s from school: Who, What, Where, When and Why. This is when you can start thinking about your main character or lack thereof. Your main character is the first W, Who. Who can be solid or abstract; your Who could be a character which the story will be about or a group of Whos that will be your audience. To give an example of Who; in the comic Chugworth Academy by Dave Cheung the Who is Sally Richards. Who can also be the whole cast of characters like in Errant Story by Michael Poe. Who can also be your audience, if you intend your comic to be about gamers there may not be a regular cast but episodic situations that gamers go through. Who is simply the person or thing that the comic will revolve around. Onto dreaded W number two: What. What is the subject of your comic. A common genre is reality, this is What your comic is about; the real life of the Who, but it is more than just genre. What also includes thing the comic is about. Using one of the above examples, Errant Story is a fantasy comic about the adventures of Sarine, Meji, Jon, etc, who are in search of an ancient elven ruin. Granted Errant Story is much more complicated than this but it is one of the Whats the comic is about. PVP is about gamers. You must decide what you comic is about and how it involves the Who. Where; oh where, oh where does your comic take place? Earth? A Spaceship? Where is simply that the setting IE the place; A College, Fantasy World, Hospital, wherever. Where is one of the simple W’s to explain but not always the easiest to pick. Your Where must help promote your What which happens to your Who. Where is a support element, it is the setting in which your What happens to your Who. When is simply a time frame; now, later or before. This, like Where, is a support element. It’s as easy as picking the time frame but adds depth to your story. When can be more then just real time but possible time. Post apocalyptic Earth, 1920’s Earth, 3000 years in the past on a fantasy planet setting. And then there was the last W: Why. Why is simply the reason the What is happening to your Who in Where and When. The Why doesn’t have to be revealed to your readers right away but it must be completely fleshed out. Your comic could start with a man running down the street from a pair of cops and the comics continue with the man running from the law. You know Why but your audience is in the dark and searches for Why. It could even be your premise. That is the basic concept of your comic: A Drama or Comedy about WHO that does WHAT WHERE WHEN and WHY. Now you have your base. Next you decide on the way you will tell your story; will it be continuous or episodic? Comment on this article in our forum The opinions and views expressed within Keenspace Monthly does not reflect those of Keenspace or Keenspot. The Keenspace Newsletter is NOT officialy associated with Keenspace or Keenspot. |
