Evaluation

I completed the project by overlaying my previous recorded sound effects on top of the images, taking the whole package into Adobe Premier and creating my visual narrative story.
I feel I completed this project with a great sense of ambition, setting myself a high task of developing a believable character and narrative while combining the artistic style of a comic strip.

Photography

After sketching out my ideas it was easier for me to formulate a shooting schedule and create several contact sheets for my images, By controlling my ISO and depth of filed I allowed myself a level of artistic creation whilst sticking true to my original brief.
I then edited all of the photos in Photoshop by doubling up on layers and tonal ranging the top image into black and white, creating this sense of anti-realism.

Comic extract

I have decided on the direction my comic snippet will follow and have developed a script, this has allowed me to draw up my storyboards and get a sense of what needs to be shot within the photos and what audio must be compiled.

My drawings contain written directions, detail scenes and also information for the camera such as ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Anti-hero

There are many different anti heros created within the comic book genre, below is a list and a few details of who they are and what they are about:

Johnny C aka Nny- A young lad with a terrible attitude, slaughters handfuls of people in very nasty, imaginative ways all for the cause of covering his bedroom wall in blood to stop a monster from another dimension entering.

Judge Dredd- A man of law, a twisted and corrupt law. he enforces his will with his gun and hardbitten rules, terrorising many, despite this sense of wrongness surrounding this character, he is still one of the most popular "2000 ad" characters.

Black widow- one of the closer representations to a sense of my character, she kills evil people inorder to deliver their souls to the devil. Either an empty vessel or just detrermined in her purpose, she kills relentlessly and apparently without remorse, making her that much more deadly and much more ture to her name, the black widow.


So with an established and pouplar anti-hero/vigilante theme concurrent in some comics i feel my story fits in better, its not generic, the depth on my character and his reasoning make him unique.

Existing inspiration

I have looked at existing comic book icons who resemble the vigilante/ anti hero mould and what they portray and how artistically they successful tell a narrative, whilst engaging the audience with the character, building a bond which should under normal circumstances  exist.

Scene selction

This is the difficult part, choosing a segment which can some up the feeling of the comic but portrayed over only a two page spread.
The scene I'm going to focus on is where the main character will be shown hunting one of his prey a sex offender, and killing him, it reveal details of the character, his purpose, his past and will ideally give an overall impression of where the comic would go.

Narrative idea

Having gathered certain techniques used successfully in the existing genre of comic books i have developed a story from existing images and ideas i have seen throughout society.
the basic outline of my narrative follows this:

A male approaching his early twenties decides to listened to his ability he has had throughout his life, as a child he was abused by his father but the torture was not just psychical, his power to read minds ensured the pain was also psychological.
 On first appearance the character would appear like every average joe, wearing a suit, clean shaved, and a general air of decency, but what flows inside of him, this painful rage grows ever stronger.
 To many it would of driven insane, tortured everyday by past ghost's and memories. Although on the flip side he has a greta career, great relationships with people and a successful love life, all because he knows just what people are thinking and what they want.
Even with this twist in character he is not fulfilled, haunted by his past he resumes the role type of an Antihero or vigilante, travelling and hunting other criminals who commit atrocious crimes, sex offenders, serial killers.

The art of communication

The comic book style relies heavily on its images and narrative flowing like a steady stream, weaving into peoples minds and affecting how one may feel or think towards a fictional person. Along with image capture techniques the art of communication verifies and enforces its purpose in order to keep the narrative of a comic alive.
Images are laid out in forms of panels all varying in size and style which all encompass and help the story flow, particular detail to attention can be emphasised by enlarging the boxes of images and really making a visual impact.
Speech bubbles show the communication between characters, the thought balloons allow an insight into what they are thinking and when cleverly used can greatly increase the amount of detail about a character and or scene.
The narrative box is another tool for disposal which contributes a story line which may not require character participation but is indeed vital to the story progress.  
Lettering moves along with the images and indeed re runs the information by the reader for feedback to the clarity is true to its purpose.
Even the thickness and variety of lines and borders around these techniques is undeniably crucial to the mood being created, different colour shaped blocks can emphasise a flashback or a dream sequence, anger and emotion can also be created by using stronger lines and more jagged edges.  

Image capture techniques

A huge technique that ensnares the audience within comic books is the ability of using images which might be out of the ordinary, huge blocks of colour within the background and also almost veers into an abstract artistic feel.
Line widths and linear direction can emphasise how important an image is within its surrounding, prompting a visual response in which reader's can consume the information, visual and interpret them into a running narrative.
Originally comic book heroes were drawn rather simply with a complex background meaning identification with the character was easy to establish, whereas most recently the characters have become more imaginative, colourful, and offer a higher sense of hierarchy to society, inflating the readers ego and sense of belief.

Back to the beginning

In order to fully understand the appeal of comic book's and the vast appeal around the world I will have to look into the core of the genre and what it is that ensnares peoples imagination.
The original comic book was born in 1933 in the united states of america, and initially was just a collection of earlier created newspaper humour comic strips, but what turned this book of jokes into a global phenomenon that now encompasses a huge variety of genres.

             

Above: Original concepts of comic books

It was during the 1960s-1970s that marvel comics arose and brought with it the age of the superheroes, greatly portrayed characters who would fight bad guys and save the world, it gave people a sense of awe whilst reading, they were swept away into a world of imagination.

Existing

I reserached exisitng superhero's with mind reading or telepathy powers and only came across one existing character, Professor Xavier from Marvels Xmen, unlike my charcter though the Professor use's his powers to help other mutants.

Idea

My main idea for this project is to fabricate an Anti-hero character with the ability to read minds, whether he uses his powers for good or evil is based upon individual ideology since he uses his power to read the minds of extreme criminals, such as murderers and sex offenders and then kills them.
 He is also a part time professional photographer, as he can read what the client wants and offers the perfect photo's therefore making him have enough money to travel round the country following leads on potential prey.

Begining

I have been requested to research, plan in depth and produce an excerpt, single page from a photographic novel supporting a chosen narrative along with creating supporting audio.