This is reblogged from my original post on Mangamagazine, which can be found here.
Ideas and Themes in Comic
I took a class in comics when I was in university, which was very different than I thought it would be. We went over and discussed the evolution and history of comics (which I later went on to suppliment later with research on the developmental influence of american comics on Manga), but also touched on many comics in print that were personal tales of everyday life. While writing my own work, this has been something I've tried to keep in mind - what message do I want to convey beyond the story itself to the reader? As I work in webcomics, which is a fickle medium (especially in terms of actually finding an audience), I've been wondering also about how much subliminal messaging other authors talk put into their work. I'll take four of my own ideas as examples:
The presenation of a homosexual relationship which has not been eroticized or sexualized within the frame of an epic storyline.
Fracture is, or will eventually will be, a three or four part epic with a storyline that I've been working on for a long time. However, the main idea behind the storyline (and the reason why I've actually allowed myself to continue with something that started out originally as a pubescent fantasy) is this: To display a homosexual relationship in a medium and story in which they are not usually portrayed in North American mainstream media, wherein the homosexuality is neither a focus nor a main point of the storyline, but simply exists and isn't particularly remarkable to any of the other characters. This relationship is framed as an epic, and to drive home the fact that this relationship should be normal. The idea is to present this as a relationship without the sexualization and eroticism with which it is often treated as in many popular webcomics.
What does a person do when faced with impending mortality?
The entire idea behind this story is to follow someone faced with their impending mortality who meets their soulmate the same day they are told that they only have a year to live. Exploring the moral dilemas between the idea of love, mercy, and hurting each other while facing mortality. How far would you go to have a person you love, how far would you go to hurt them, how far to save them, how far to be with them? Basically an adventure into the human psychie when faced with death.
Highlighting Domestic Violence Against Men
Rain is more at the very beginning of the idea stage, where I have a character whose background was that he was physically & emtionally abused by his life. After watching a video on youtube recently about Tropes in Video Games (This was about women), I was struck by a particular part where the presenter is talking about how the reinforcement of the Damsel in Distress mechanism serves to reinforce not only the fact that women are powerless and need big strong men to save them, but also this idea we have about how men need to big and strong and unflinching. We're fooling ourselves if we think that domestic violence is a one way street, but domestic violence against women & children gets a lot of screen time. (Similarly to rape - men can be raped too, even though it's much less reported.) I'd really like to use this one as an exploration into the psyhological and social ramifications of an experience like this.
Highlighting the Effects of Domestic (Psycological and Sexual) Childhood Abuse on Adults
Similarly to Fracture, this one is framed within a larger storyline, although the focus of this on is on relationships and not on an overarching storyline. The main differences between this and Rain are that Rain starts at the beginning of the abusive relationship and watches while it spirals out of control, whereas Rainbow focuses on a man who has been abused most of his life, who is then helped. A story of reclimation, survival, and recovery, as opposed to a story about decimation and loss. It would also look at the effects of abuse on two different individuals, and how differently the same (or similar) effects can have on two different place. (Basically a discussion of Nature vs. Nurture.)
So, as you can see, in the works that I'm working on, or at least considering working on, I try to do some heavy thinking about what exactly I want to talk about, how I want to convey it, and what kind of message I want to convey to my reader. I'm also curious about how other artist approach their work in this kind of respect. Is there anything that particularly inspires you, that you try to fit into your work? Or are you a fly-by-the-pants kind of person?
-Ser
Ps: The video I was talking about can be found here.
