So I feel like and probably sound like a big asshole here, but I checked out a lot of the #bettercartoon tag on twitter, where artists were invited to share their series ideas a few months ago, and my main takeaway from it is that not nearly enough artists understand the value of a hook. There’s lots of passion and talent on display, but the series concepts end up being a bunch of OC’s and tropes thrown together without a single, cohesive angle that we haven’t all seen before. There’s a lot of “here’s some plucky kids in some kind of fantastical land” and “here’s a slice of life with zany mis-matched friends.” Conversely, here’s one of the ones that works really well:
Van Helsing IS a van and a vampire rides in him. That’s a HOOK that makes my brain say “I want to know what kinds of stories this leads to. Someone was a clown for not greenlighting this.” A lot of the other creators will get there, I’m sure, but some of them could stand to step back and think: “what can I say about my series in just a single sentence that would pique a total stranger’s curiosity?”
