Update 23/01/08 - I've emailed a few people who've shown (or casually expressed) interest in FIZZOO! to discuss format, structure, page & word count etc. If anyone else fancies getting involved please email me (or leave a comment below) and I'll forward details on to you. Remember, it's very much an amateur exercise. So come one, come alll.
A new year. A new project.
After sampling anew the girls' comic delights that have been on show here o'er the last few months, Tuppenceworth's luverly Simon McGarr (a recent McDaddy) mailed me with a proposal.
Like me he grew up supplementing his regular comics intake with surreptitious dips into the wonderful worlds of Bunty, Misty, Mandy et al. These dips have left lasting impressions - ensuring that he and I remain committed fans of the "girl comic" and all its conventions.
And so…after some thought (about 10 minutes' worth) we've decided to create FIZZOO! A Girls' Comic…by Boys (and maybe some girls).1
Fizoo! will (when/if it gets going) be hosted online here, feature 1-2 page collaborations between interested writers and artists, and attempt to offer askew (or even twisted) takes on such girls' comic staples as…gothic horror, schoolgirl misery, orphans, ponies, supernatural companions etc., etc.
Such a venture does, of course, run the risk of wandering into territory covered ad nauseam by Viz. A concerted-ish effort needs, then, to be made to avoid Viz's tried and tested goofy scatologica. In other words, don't expect to see something like…em…"Mavis McGog and her vomiting Dog". Actually, that's pretty funny…so ignore all previous remarks.
The first two stories will be tackled by Simon and myself - with art likely to be supplied by the fabulous "Q". To keep it going we're going to need fresh blood and fresher imaginations. If any of you regular (or irregular) readers fancy having a go at either d'writing or d'illustrating of a story then please leave a message below (or email me…see sidebar).
The aim is to be fairly slavishly faithful to the feel of Bunty, Mandy (et al) but with (as I said) a dirty twist or two.
Let us know what ye think.
P.S: I wrote the above after 2 pints of Guinness, 2 glasses of red wine, a brandy and a hot port…so if I gobble my gook please forgive me.
P. P. S: In other news - Greetings Earthlings has finally been updated.
- Name subject to the whims of change. [back]
Terrific idea. I should like to see…
“Wanda Starr and her Talking Sewing Machine”, which actually only tells dirty jokes in other languages. Hilarity ensues as Wanda tries to return the sewing machine to its rightful alien owners and gravely insults people from other countries, while the aliens are watching the whole thing, having a laugh.
“Emma Sykes and Respect for Women” {Respect for Women might be an alien device, like a massive, flashing helmet, that she uses to protect teenage girls from their cousins, eg}
January 12th, 2008 at 6:04 pmNiall,
A lovely pair of gems. Why not write ‘em your good self? I’ll get someone else to do the art, unless you fancy having a crack at that too/instead.
I can see the (ooer) helmet now.
January 12th, 2008 at 6:26 pmBallet Sally:
Shy doormat Sally is given ballet lessons by a mysterious ninja. Soon she is using her newfound skills to fight street crime and vanquish bullies.
But is she good enough to land the coveted lead role in the school production of Swan Lake? Only if she can out-dance spoiled teenage aristocrat Anastasia Bakhvalova!
January 13th, 2008 at 10:51 amHooray,
Already the good juices are flowing like all our brains were squashed oranges.
For people who might want to take the next step towards Fizzoo glory I can reassure you that it takes a mere 16 lines of dialog per page.
Come one, come all. The whole point is to have some fun with an unloved form- probably no longer found in the wild. That the original comics were produced at speed, with minimal planning and thought given to whether they made sense and with a strong reliance on the familiar tropes (or cliches, as the unkind might call them) of the genre. We hope that these new stories would live up to these high standards.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:41 pmwriting-world.com
January 14th, 2008 at 12:46 amwriting-world.com
That url looks like it needs help.
Good line on that page, btw:
“[As a comic book writer y]ou now have two audiences — the artist and the reader — and they both need different things from you. Your reader just wants a good story; your artist needs instructions that will lead to that story. Don’t expect your artist to divine the subtext and hidden meanings in your stories the way a reader would.”
January 14th, 2008 at 12:48 am26pigs.com
There’s a fairly awesome A-Z of plots from girl comics at 26pigs for anyone having trouble getting started (or finished).
http://www.26pigs.com/judy/characters.html
January 14th, 2008 at 12:55 amcopernicus, For some reason this version of Wordpress puts the homepage url of the linked to site at the start of every comment. Very annoying.
That 26 pigs thing is great. Loads of inspiration there for prospective FIZZOO! writers.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:04 amgraylien, Right. You’re on board. Go off and scribble that into shape (max of 2 pages). If you don’t I’ll go ballet/ninja on your ass.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:05 amSimon, We’re starting to cook (or at least simmer) alright. The main thing needed now are more artists. Lots more artists. We can’t be swamping “Q” with all the submissions.
I’m working on this, but if anyone knows of any potentially interested artistic types please let me know.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:09 amWould be story-crafters may find this application useful.
It will let you lay out the page and position your speech bubbles.
Good for working out just how little can be said in an average comic.
http://plasq.com/downloads/
January 14th, 2008 at 9:25 amIf you haven’t heard Kevin Eldon’s old podcast for Resonance FM, you should - at the very least, paid especial heed to “Decree”, which is an unholy concatenation of Greetings Earthlings, pony books and arranger keyboards:
http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/24
Take note of the post relevance at 8m 15s.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:54 amAlso, the Script Smart add-on for MS Word from the BBC has a set of tools designed to help people writing for comics.
But I’d love to hear from an artist how they’d like to get the script.
Because that’s what matters.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:17 pmThanks to Fustar for the invite to the project. I’m looking forward to a script coming my way, I just hope I can do it justice!
Obviously, scripts should list individual panels with a description of what the author wants to appear in each panel, along with the character or narrative dialogue.
The devil is in the detail. It’s helpful when writers include the expressions, stance and position of characters within the panel (e.g. should they be to the left or right of the scene?), along with any incidentals that they want including such as specific backgrounds and settings.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:44 amEeek! You mean you don’t just make it all up from our gracefully written lines about lacrosse?
Ok, back to the scribble pad.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:44 pmoff the top of my head
Belinda: Born of Man and Woman
Klubb Legg Kate
a comic adaptation of ‘Out of this World’ where Boirt actually talks out of the girl’s ‘jewelery box’
cf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_This_World_(TV_series)
Bin Bag Bettie
(and amorphous blob creature who has to stay in a bin bag in order to not bring shame on her high flatutin prep school)
January 17th, 2008 at 6:06 am“oh what’s that Bin Bag Bettie, sure you can be prom queeen etc. etc…’
In the interests of multiculturalism, how about ‘Aisha and her Magic Abaya’? Aisha is a teenage girl who lives in the Middle East. One day when walking in a palm grove, she hears a voice coming from a date palm. It turns out to ba a djinn who is trapped in the tree because of a curse. Only a virgin can help to free him and she can only do so by stealing three things from the local Imam, who is the grandson of the person who imprisoned the djinn in the tree many years ago. What Aisha must bring to the djinn are a rose from the Imam’s garden, the skullcap he wears under his turban and a strand of hair from his beard. In a society that practises gender apartheid this is no easy task, but Aisha, by disguising herself as a boy and insinuating herself into the Imam’s household manages to produce the loot which she brings to the djinn. As soon as she brings the third item the djinn is freed and becomes Aisha’s loyal companion. He also works some magic on her abaya (the black cloak with which Muslim women cover themselves) so as to make her invisible when she wears it. (Now I hear you say that that is precisely what an abaya is supposed to do, but I mean literally invisible)
Now Aisha and her new djinn friend embark on a series of adventures in which uses her invisibility to play pranks and to help people. I can see her helping oppressed women and generally using her abaya as a weapon against the patriarchial society which requires women to wear abayas. I can even see her foiling terrorist plots…
On the other hand I am not sure if it is such a good idea after all. We don’t want fatwas issued against us and we don’t want to be accused of causing riots in Peshawar even if they might go down is history as the ‘Fustar Riots’!
January 17th, 2008 at 1:53 pmIthaca, Sorry for taking a year and a half to respond.
Though the proposed story may contain a controversial element or two it falls neatly into the “Girl plus Otherworldly Companion” slot. The first part - the back-story - needs not be shown. This is the kind of thing that the “box” in the first panel always explains anyway (you can see I’m well up on the precise terms).
Perhaps if the oppressed women she helped were spread throughout the globe, in many different cultures, we could avoid the charge of using a comic djinn to have a pop at specifically Islamic patriarchy.
Hidebound misogynists might still organise themselves in protest, but at least the riots would be multicultural.
In other words, best to offend everyone at the same time.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:05 amlorcan, “Bin Bag Bettie” is a gem (albeit an amorphous one). It’d be best if we never saw her in her entirety. Perhaps the odd glimpse of a bulging eye or a pulsating tentacle. Keeps the mystery alive and allows for the nice sight gag of a speech bubble coming out of a bin bag.
By the way, I’ll try and get something new up about FIZZOO! on the morrow eve.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 amcheers, just got your mail on the format and was just thinking that at least an eye would need to be visible to make her a viable character, must get cracking on it over the weekend…
January 24th, 2008 at 2:33 am