Project Hail Mary

I'm currently working my way through all three volumes of Vanguard (I'm just finishing up volume 1 as I write this) and so I didn't have anything comic book related to post this week.

So, instead I thought I'd bore everyone and talk about what a project I've been working on for what feels like years.

As the title suggests, this project is called Project Hail Mary. Having previously spoken to Ryan K Lindsay and David Pepose regarding the reasoning for using project names (as well as how cool it sounds), I decided I wanted to do the same thing instead of just talking about 'this project I'm working on. I also, wanted to a totally talk about what I'm doing without giving too much away about what km actually doing (although I've talked to so many people about it, I'd be surprised if it wasnlt common knowledge).

For years now, I've wanted to write my own comic. There are two reasons for this: firstly, I feel it would help me appreciate the creative process more when I review other people's comics. This is because it is easy to critique someone else's work but I don't think you can fully appreciate the work they put in unless you do it yourself. The second reason is simply that I've been having ideas of my own for years, almost all of which are stored in the funky looking green notebook I have by my bed.

Back in 2017 (wow, that long) I took part in a short comic competition run by Matt Garvey. Now, I didn't win but, working with the fantastic Ayoade Adobarin, we still created the Hipster Beard, which I've since given it's own page on my blog for everyone to see Ayo's skills for themselves.

However, after creating that short strip, I have found myself thinking up more and more ideas in the same vein, short little strips with this horror vibe and a bit of twist at the end. They are probably not the greatest compared to the greatness already put there but oh well.

Therefore, this has become Project Hail Mary. I call it Project Hail Mary because this is my ... well, my Hail Mary Pass, my one desperate attempt to do this (because I'm unsure if I would be able to have another chance).

My plan for Project Hail Mary is pretty simple (from my perspective). I've so far written 9 short stories (including the Hipster Beard) which totals around 50 pages (I do have two additional stories that I haven't written than I think could add an extra ten pages but for now we'll stick to 50). All of these stories have this kind of 'classic horror tropes (Dracula, the Wolfman, etc) set in the present day' notion to them that are probably incredibly derivative but I got a kick out of as I wrote them.

From there, my plan would be to have different artists create each story in a very sin city look (I.e. black and white hit with hints of colour). I already have a (very) long list of artists I want to work with for this (because of it's my one shot then I want to take advantage of it) but they would probably depend on budget.

However, once the art is done, I would produce a pdf file and make it digital only (to keep costs down) and then sell it at £1/$1 per copy. I'm thinking this price because I feel it would A. Entice more people to take a look (because 50 pages for £1/$1 sounds pretty good to me) and also because while I'm sure the art would be fantastic, I don't want to overcharge people for what could be crap stories from an unknown quantity (i.e. me).

So, that's where I am with this. Now, I'm sure anyone who has gotten to this point is wondering 'why haven't you done this yet?' and the answer is pretty simple. Firstly, I'm still tinkering on the stories. First drafts are written but changed are needed on at least three of the ideas, while I still want to add two more ideas to the collections. Also, I want to flesh out the characters with a sort of 'character bio' for each idea, just so artists aren't working from scratch.

The other thing is that I, currently, don't have the money to get this thing made. I'm considering running a Kickstarter to get this funded, but I feel that I'd need some, if not most, of the art created before I get to that point. Unfortunately, I don't have the capital to hire the artists in advance at present (and I'm SO not willing to ask them for the payment of 'exposure' and the hope of money later). Therefore, I'm a little bit stuck in a holding pattern for the time being.

However, it's still on my wish list of things I want to do in my life and I'll keep tinkering away at it. I just figured, with nothing to write I'd just share this while also giving some insight as to what I'm talking about whenever I mention it in future.

Oh, and before I forget ...

My review for this week over at Pipedream Comics was Daniel Reed's the Mycelium Complex #1 & 2, which is currently coming to the end of its Kickstarter campaign. I've got to admit, I was intrigued by this one, mainly because of the word Mycelium and my wonder if Daniel Reed was a Star Trek Discovery fan.

And, in a way, I enjoyed reading this. As I feel I reiterated several times in the review, I was intrigued by what was going on. However, I also found it extremely frustrating. There is so little information as to what is going on in either time zone, how they connect, how the world ended, anything. As a result, the more I read through, the more of a slog this was becoming. It wasn't helped by the fact that very little is given about the characters beyond a name and some brief intro to their personality. In fact, only Pat and Benny are more filled out and neither I would call a 'sympathetic character'.

The art was solid (minus a small niggle here and there) but it really was a frustrating read because I'm certain this comic has so much potential. If the author offers up some information to the seeming time travel aspect, Pat and Benny's connection to the world ending or what happened to Evelyn, then I'd be more than happy to go back but, for now, I'd be hesitant to return until the whole story was available.

 

So, that's another week done. It's obviously a bit less comic-focused and, hopefully, that's something I will rectify for next weeks post (although, at 14 issues, I'm skeptical I'll complete Vanguard in that time). However, for now, I'm glad I took the time to air my plan/dream/idea.

Even if it is a little pie in the sky.