Graphic Novel & Manga Concepts

[czarfunkle]

Recently, after purchasing and reading Akria: Volume 1 I have had the interest in conceptualizing a graphic novel or manga.
I'm looking for help, I'm attempting to create character concepts but am stuck in a rut.
Maybe collaborating on stories and character ideas might help so, here I am asking for a little inspiration or collaboration.

[[~Ramble.Corset~]]

best thing I ever did for helping me with character, world, or fashion design concepts was generate a folder of everything, eg. hairstyles, faces, body types, clothing (all split up for men and women), pose references etc. and at the back have a photocopy of any character I'm currently working on ^^
it has helped me make around 10-15 characters so far and I look forward to it helping me with others ;D

[[~Ramble.Corset~]]

you could also look up random plot generators, or post examples of your art requesting an artist/collaborator

[IronSpike]

The Admin, in the Rules and Guidelines sticky you didn't read

Do Not Request Ideas

This is a Comic Creator's forum. If you need people to give you new ideas for your own work, you might want to rethink even creating a comic or story - it's not as though the work stops after completing one story or comic. You'll always need ideas if you want to keep making comics, and asking other people for it can also result in copyright/legal issues. So don't do it.

Coming up with ideas is the the easiest and most enjoyable part of making comics. If you can't even do that by yourself, you're not ready.

[czarfunkle]

Spike: Huh since when is suggesting a collaboration requesting an idea?
I wasn't aware.
Here I am with plenty of concepts in my head, I'm just struggling to make them cohesive.
I'll decide whether or not I'm ready, thanks.

[Seth Reinheit]

It all depends on the plot in mind. Don't go further with it until you've figured out the beginning, middle, and end. What's the major goal or conflicts of the main character. Why should anyone even care? If the graphic novel is open ended and not so much story based then you can treat each chapter like its own short story. For longer term projects its better to have in mind the beginning, and what you want to do in the end before you really start writing the content. How you come up with a plot depends. Read a lot though is the best bet. Every plot has been done in one way or another, any conflicts you can think of have a story with them. The difference between your story and another story with the same idea is how you interpret it and your personal style. Sometimes its as simple as taking a concept of one genre, twisting it with another. The Dark tower is an example of a fantasy story at heart, but the catch is the setting is more of an old west, than medieval/feudal european setting like a lot of popular high fantasy stories seem to be since Tolkien's work has been around.

For characters, they come naturally with the story. When you are doing the plot there's at least 1-2 characters usually in mind right there. Start working on them. As you go further more characters will come when they are needed. Just don't force a character. I've done it, i'm sure plenty of other people have tried as well when you have a really cool character design. Just keep it on the back burner, maybe they'll fit better in another story. I've written some character designs i absolutely love, tried to fit them in a story, but in the end they just simply weren't working, so i had to cut them out from the plot. Other characters will fit naturally, and you can work on them more from that. Just interrogate the hell out of your characters to make sure you know they're the right man (or woman) for the job. Its challenging, you might throw out a lot of people, but in the end it'll make the story stronger when you have the right characters involved and don't let yourself get too attached to the split ends.

[IronSpike]

mumm-rachmaninoff

Spike: Huh since when is suggesting a collaboration requesting an idea?
I wasn't aware.
Here I am with plenty of concepts in my head, I'm just struggling to make them cohesive.
I'll decide whether or not I'm ready, thanks.

You asked for "inspiration or collaboration."

One: We're not here to inspire you. Every other thread in here is someone begging for "manga ideas." If your interest in creating a comic takes priority over that potential comic's concept, you're not ready to make one.

Two: What you're asking for isn't a collaboration. It doesn't count as a collaboration unless you're actually bringing something to the table; you don't even have a "cohesive" idea. What is it you plan on doing, exactly? Saying "Let's make a sci-fi/fantasy/cyberpunk/romance comic!!!!" and then sitting back expectantly while your "collaborator" gets to work like a treeful of cookie-baking elves?

For what it's worth, people who work in comics professionally and semi-professionally have a general loathing of "idea men." Those are people who show up with a concept they have no ability to execute, and expect others to create for them, because it's just that good. And from the sound of things, you aren't even that.

Most people coming in here looking to "collaborate" at least have the germ of a plot they're willing to share, a talent (or just a willingness to produce) in art or writing, or another sort of specific request. "LET'S MAKE A COMIC!!!" threads don't get far. And for good reason.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Honestly, I have to agree with Spike. I didn't get the impression you even had any ideas from your initial post. :/

[Foxgirl_Kira]

I think you are asking help on character design and then starting a story? For a class we had a prompt to draw. Make a list of 1-20 of random words for example: 1-a shadow, 2-the flight, 3-running ect. Then make a list of all the letters in the alphabet giving yourself plenty of choices. Example, a- dictionary, b- the sun, c- pencil ect. Then pick a number and a letter then illustrate that. Then keep messing around with the idea until a full character comes from it. Then you could be inspired to make a whole story from a little phrase or an interesting character design with interesting powers or traits or both.

I don't have a list already made for you but it could be fun just making the list. Also the number list can be longer too. But I wouldn't shorten anything because this gives a good range of options for you to work with.

I hope this helps. O^_^O

[Half-breed Vampire Wolf]

I am a lurker, but I wanted to post something. xp
I took a creative writing class and one of the things we had to come up with is a character sheet. I used a character I aready created for it, but it still helped me quite a bit.
Here is the basic list, with some things thrown in.
Character:
Name, weight, height, hair color, eye color, personality, brief background, family, etc.
If you get the characters you want down, you have some basis for the idea. For me the character sometimes comes first, sometimes the story comes first. I also create an outline for the plot, and flesh it out when the ideas fall into place.
Before I forget, make an outline yourself and figure out the plot you want for your story, otherwise it won't turn out well.
Also, make sure the story is believeable, otherwise you will be selling yourself and your audience short.
Hope that helps. biggrin

[Ethma]

I really feel like a lot of people go about character creation the wrong way. Having characters means nothing if they don't have a sandbox to play in, or if the world you've created for them doesn't suit them.

Before you make a million aimless characters, build yourself a world with rules and geography and hierarchy, etc., and then build your characters around that setting. The better you know your setting, the easier it will be to create characters who belong in it, give them purpose, and build your actual story.

[paramecium99]

Your characters won't really be yours if you ask other people to make them for you. Analyse the qualities you would like for each character. If you can't do that I doubt you even have a set concept so you should work on that first. Also think about what genres you would like to cover and what archetypal characters you will need to accomplish that.