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Have you ever heard of a book where, after a writer starts, each additional page is written by someone new? The authors can take the plot wherever they want; do with the characters what they will; and, eventually, create their own collective story, born of the thoughts and inventions of each individual.

Well, why not try it out for a manga?

I figure that since we're all artists, all unique in our styles, imaginations, and abilities, we could make our own compiled manga. It'd be a great way to get together as a community and do something really fun. And all that artistic steam, that stress, annoyances, and a lot of love would be put into a single collection.

I figure it needs some organization, though, so I'd like to plan things out with you guys before actually starting anything. ^^;

First, we'd have to pick an order. How could we go about picking the one who starts the story? After the first person is picked, I think whoever's "available" should take the next page, and so on and so forth until the end of participants is reached.

With those thoughts in mind, each artist should have a certain time period to get their page completed. As for the definition of complete, I'm not too picky myself - I think that any medium should be allowed, so long as the picture required effort, and not 5-second doodles, to create. Back to the time alotted - since a professional manga artist working for Shounen Jump can pump out 15-20 pages of manga in the span of 6 days, we could reasonably give a week per person per page, correct? I know that we're all busy with school and work (unless you're not, you lucky poo), but a week should allow things to get done.

And lastly (I think), should we design our characters and setting beforehand? Just looks, I mean. And I think only one character design would be necessary. The personalities of the characters would be determined by the artists and authors, as well as any additional characters. The personality of the original character would be spontaneous, too. I just think it'd be good to have a starting place, or at least to have the first person drawing establish a setting and at least one character in their page. What do you think?

Cover would be done later... and maybe by a guest artist or through a contest, for fun.

Please write your opinions here~! Thank you very much! Remember, this is still PLANNING.

That's the fun of it--- I think we all could! I mean, we'd all get the chance to introduce characters at some point, right?

Do you have any ideas of how one might start this sort of project? ninja

woo~, sounds teh ubber fun.

but, after we pick orders

*example*

bob - pg 1
fred - pg2
sara - pg 3
bob - pg 4
fred - pg 5

could said person (in this case I'll use fred) didn't have time on week 5(/pg 5) could he ask sara or bob to work on his page for him? if so, how would we decide who would? (if it's possible)

that aside, first and foremost I think we should start with a genre so we at least know what kinda characters (as in hair styles/clothing/species(??)) we'll be needing to create, setting would probebly pend on the genre as well (ie; you probebly don't need a hospital for a story set in the 1700 b.c. or so) as far as genre's go, I don't really have a push for any certain genre, since we're sharing a comic (so to speak) it'll probebly end up comedy though. (knowing us X3;; )

oh, and I'm "available" for a project like this. >w<; spiffy idea, Cruzle.

agreed much.

hm~ the plot should probebly be (at least to begin with) something that we all would enjoy drawing and something within our capabilities. (ie; some people might not want to draw a 16th century-based horror story because they can't/don'twantto draw the arcitecture(sp?), grottesc(sp? *brick'd*) things and clothing of the timeline) so maybe something simple (again, to start out with) ((not that I mind 16th-century based horror stories *w* heart ))

*thinks* ... hm... personally I'm a really indecissive person alot of the time. *brick'd agan* sweatdrop but I know we can at least narrow down our range of ideas by having people list things they wouldn't want the stories to involve. As for myself...

-mechs

that's really the only thing I really just can't stand drawing, everything else I'm pretty much fine with. (unless someone mentions something I'm blissfully not thinking about right now, and assuming were staying under Gaia's TOS)

I think the name idea is a good one, ix~! I'm still convinced that people should come up with characters as it goes, though. However, that might be hard. A single page of manga is more like a paragraph than a page in a book (well, at least in the beginning). Then again, some people put too much effort into their characters and wouldn't want to post them here to be used in the manga. Basic character ideas (rather than name, costume, history, and extended details) might be good, though... just personalities that people won't mind others introducing in their pages. We all want the freedom to be creative after all, right?

I guess we need a setting, then. We don't even need a basic story~! I mean, this is spontaneous, after all, not professional (though we're still going to try our best). A basic story isn't necessary, because what one person introduces on one page (for example, a person walking at night bumps into a stranger) can be explained further on the next page (either the character could continue on, or ther bumped-into individual could be a thief, or someone magical, or something important plot-wise, or not at all). That's also a way to introduce new themes, characters, and ideas into the story.

I'll add ix's sign-up list to the first post. Let's put in more input and start on setting too for now. How's that sound...?

My ideal setting would involve modern themes and regalia. I'm just better at drawing people who LOOK human and wear clothes I see often. I also prefer no anthro characters... VERY much prefer to have a story without them. No future, no mechas. No old-fashioned dresses every page, either. I'm more of a dark person with some humor (in my own style), but am not close-minded. Besides, we'd be making it suit ourselves on each page while still making the story cohesive, anyway. I also have no probelms whatsoever with shounen-ai. heart But not every character needs to be gay. And it's probably better if this doesn't include any really explicit sexual scenes, too. XD;;;

...And that's my input~!

I like the setting idea, although i think it should be somewhat fantasy mixed with reality - an alternate universe, sorta. Like Hunter X Hunter! 3nodding

Hmm, the more i think about it, the more i think introducing characters as the story progresses is a good idea. 3nodding Leaves room for spontinaity.


I'm gonna need a cool-costume outlet in this, though... ninja Even if it's not complex, i need to design at least one character with a wicked fashion sense. gonk Hmm, maybe i can slip Darci into the comic.... ninja

You mean for choosing order? But if someone's busy... people kinda know what their schedules are like in advance, right? For example, the week of March 24th and May 5th and 6th, I KNOW I will be busy (yeah, out of state-ness and testing!). I definitely can't afford to draw manga then. That might be a good idea, drawer... I'm really unsure. I'd like as much input as possible when it comes to starting this thing (the characters, mostly).

I love everything ix posted. Yes. You said it how I couldn't. heart I love those kinds of worlds, myself.

I think we should maybe work something out beforehand, so that list may not be necessary (?).

Just tell me how you all think we should get this thing started, and by this thing, I mean the manga itself. XD Let's decide on a setting and exactly how we want to do the characters.