War Is Heck: A Serial Drama, Or Something

As I was going through some old files on my computer the other day I came across this little comic strip I made a few years back. It was instigated by the discovery of these creepy military action figures I found in a dollar store. I thought that these figures were so weird looking that something good had to come from them. So I gathered up one of each and decided to do a little photography comic, a la Twisted Toyfare Theater.

Now I’ll be the first one to admit these action figures are really shitty. The arms and legs barely move, and when they do they look just plain awkward. The black guys are just repainted white guys, so every soldier literally has a “brother from another mother.” But the way they look, with the expressions on their faces, just struck me as something humorous. I had an idea, maybe not a good idea, but it was an idea.

I’ve dabbled in creating comics in the past. My year long stint of Clit and Pecker proved mostly fruitless. I loved the premise behind CnP, but lacked the time and energy to keep up with it. Not to mention the added expense of servers and promotion and what not. I am currently in the process of moving CnP to a blog here on Blogger, and I have a never before seen strip waiting in the wings for when that is completed. I do plan on updating, but not with regularity. My biggest hurdle is inspiration. And when I try to force inspiration, I get stuck. When I try to rush things, it comes out like shit. I don’t want that for my creation, so I decided to back off and let it happen whenever it does.

This is the approach I will take with my photo-comic. I currently have three strips in the bag, and I will pull those out when I am ready. But now I’m in some planning stages. I just bought one of those marble notebooks, and I glued photos of each of the figures on separate pages. Now comes the brainstorming of each character as well as background write ups. When that’s complete, I work on scripting individual storylines. After that step, I’ll move into production.
I never took those steps with CnP. That, I think, was the problem. I wanted to update twice a week. But without a path to go down, I always had to come up with new strips on the fly. And, I’ll admit, they sucked. Once I get this new strip planned, I’ll work this magic on CnP, and hopefully get that to a better place.

Like I said, I never wanted it to evaporate the way it did. But I will fix that. And when I do, things will be better. But right now I want to work on this project and see if I can make anything of it. I’m sure I can, but whether it will find an audience is a different story.

If you enjoyed this, leave a comment and let me know. Encouraging words are always welcome.