More on the Monomyth

This is in response to the bit Lynn posted a month ago, with the puppets discussing Joseph Campbell.

If you want to write these days, especially genre fiction, then you've definitely heard of Campbell and the monomyth. I first heard of him freshman year in high school, when my English teacher had us analyze Star Wars. (I really liked that English teacher.) Even then, though, part of me rebelled against the idea of Campbell's monomyth as a formula for writing. Here's some thoughts on why.

The Hero's Journey as Explained by Puppets

Need a refresher on the Joseph's Campbell's Monomyth formula?
Puppets, Mario and Fafa the groundhog from Glove and Boots, are here to educate.

You can find out more of Joseph Campbell's theory from his book, A Hero of a Thousand Faces.

What's On My Writer's Reference Shelf

Hi, there. I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Michael, Sequential Salon's resident writer-with-no-artistic-talent-whatsoever.

Anyway, Lynne asked at the last meeting for more posting, so I thought I would help out by sharing some about the books on my writer's reference shelf. I have two reference shelves, really; one is general reference for stuff I might want to put into stories someday, and the other is books on writing. Of course, there's no substitute for actually writing, but this stuff is helpful nonetheless. Some of it's comics-specific, some of it isn't, but it's all about story, so that's all right.

Under the cut, because goodness there's a lot of this stuff.

Do Anything

Do Anything: Thoughts on Comics and Things by Warren Ellis.

The first line of the 13th essay reads as such:

Meanwhile, in the feverpitch wankpit of Philip K. Dick's artificial consciousness nested inside the robot head of Jack Kirby...

It should be noted that it's a severed robot head of Jack Kirby, and it's smoking all of Warren's cigars.

Get it. Rewire your brain.

Screenwriting samples

Someone named Lee Thompson has posted a ton of TV show scripts on their website as downloadable PDFs. While not exactly formatted for comics, the structure is pretty similar to it. They are a handy reference of what to do/not do, and a fun read, to boot.

Check it out.

(Thanks for the link, Mike!)

Bartleby.com

Want to read some H.G. Wells? Check up some Greek mythology? Need to brush up on Sophocles? Look no further than Bartleby.com.

From encyclopedias to fairy tales, Bartleby.com has a staggering amount of literature you can access in full, for FREE!

Since there is so much, it will take a while to navigate through the site thoroughly, but I guarantee that there is little something for everyone here.

Here's a few links to get you started:

Ghost Stories

Bulfinch's Mythology

Leo Tolstoy Collection

Gray's Anatomy

Excellent Read: Darth Vader's Blog

I highly recommend reading this faux blog by Darth Vader written by a Cheeseburger Brown. It chronicles Vader's day to day activities from New Hope to Return of the Jedi.

Extremely funny, well written and even touching, I suggest that you choose to read the blog chronologically as the writer added more entries.

I think this is a wonderful example of writing a story from a different character's point of view.

Demon Hunter Kain World: New Babylon

Blogging is new to me, so thanks for coming along for the ride and reading this. The next thing I want to talk about I want to talk about pertaining to my Demon Hunter Kain comic is the world where the story takes place: New Babylon.

New Babylon is situated on the east coast of the USA. Don’t ask me to point out exactly where, it’s a fictional state. Growing up on horror movies and TV shows like Scooby Doo and Clue Club I noticed that different locales added an air of suspense and eeriness to the film. So I had to create a world where all types of horrific events can take place among various backdrops: the small town that hides a dark secret from outsiders, The condemned building that sits silently on the city block during day but has weird events surrounding it at night, that lone stretch of highway where you drive down and are never heard from again, Werewolves prowl the valleys under a full moon, and winged creatures take flight under the cover of darkness. This is New Babylon, a place that anything that can happen, will happen.

Watching all those “mystery” cartoons I also gained respect for the back story of the villains and how they came to be. In fact I started to wonder how horror movie villains got their origins like: Why does Jason Vorhees stalk Camp Crystal Lake, unable to die? We know why he kills, but how did he come back from the dead with a big hulking body? Questions like these always puzzled me and no one tends to answer them. That’s why in my world all villains have to have some sort of history. Whether they were assholes or good people in life turned bad in death I will try to have an answer.

The majority of Kain’s investigations and battles take place in New Babylon. From its inception as a small town in the colonial days to its status as a state, New Babylon has been a place of dark deeds, mysterious disappearances, paranormal and supernatural activity. However these frightening events have gone unnoticed over the centuries due to various secret groups, organizations and cults covering up the truth. New Babylon is separated into eleven counties:

Fenton
Essex
Wakefield
Haven Port
Hillford
Caldwell
Lauren
Forest Hill
Jacob Hills
Prospect
Norman Ridge

These counties are all connected by various roads, highways and forms of public transportation. Each county has its own disturbing and checkered past; conspiracies, serial murders, human sacrifices, devil worship, ghost sightings and other noteworthy activities.

Demon Hunter Kain Characters: Zandalee “Zee” Joseph

Zandalee “Zee” Joseph, is the first individual that Kain befriends at the beginning of the series. Zee has the ability to see and communicate with spiritual entities, although she doesn’t believe that what she sees are ghosts. Later on she gains other abilities. Kain meets Zee under unusual circumstances and reluctantly takes her under his wing and teaches her how to control her abilities.

I first envisioned Zee (The one in pink) as the plain girl next door. But later on I felt that she wouldn’t fit in with the other characters. I mean this is a young woman that’s been harassed by spirits for the better part of her life. Anyone in that situation would be antsy and antisocial, especially when said spirits tend to appear out of thin air and scare you, cause you to trip and fall and make a total fool of yourself in front of others. Having created these circumstances for the character, I conceived the design for the second Zee. She looks tired, her hair and clothing are a bit unkempt, she’s pale, and she has circles under her eyes. She’s the type of girl most people ignore or gossip about.

As with the Kain designs these are not etched in stone.

Demon Hunter Kain Characters: Kain Smith

Kain Smith is not your average 15 year-old. He comes from a long line of Demon Hunters and he’s taken on the duties of his predecessors to protect the weak and atone for a past sin. These are preliminary designs for Kain.

The first design (Kain in blue), was and early design done back in 2001! Yeah people this character has been with me that long, hell, longer than that

The second design was done back in 2005, I liked it so I didn’t mess with it until recently when the problem of how Kain is supposed to protect his identity arose.

In order to help conceal his identity, I came up with the third design. I gave him clothing that had distortion enchantments woven into the material. The enchantment has a field of influence (A radius of one mile). When standing outside this field an onlooker will see a man in a mask dressed all in black running around. However when within the enchantment’s field of influence onlookers will see different things, some might see just a man, others a child, it varies by individual and how the enchantment affects them.

Just so you know these designs are not set in stone and I am still revising them to this day. Hopefully sometime real soon I’ll have a Kain design that I’ll be truly happy with.

You know, it recently dawned on me that I’ve never explained what Demon Hunter Kain is. This gives me a chance to keep uploading and blogging.

Demon Hunter Kain is a comic book I’ve been working on and off since college. It was inspired by films and TV shows such as The Goonies, Monster Squad, Friday the 13th, Hell Raiser, Night Breed, Dark Shadows and various other horror movies and television shows I grew up on. I’ve recently begun to get a feel for the characters and their world again, especially since I’ve decided to make the book a web comic instead. By making it a web comic it saves me trying to find a publisher and I get to work at my own pace to make sure the stories are just how I want them to be.

Demon Hunter Kain revolves around a 15 year-old demon hunter named Kain. He resides in Caldwell county in the state of New Babylon, reputed by ghost hunters as being the most haunted state in all of North America. Kain secretly helps protect the people of New Babylon from the evil things that lurk in the shadows. He goes through the day as a normal teen although he shuns the friendship of others. At night we wages war on the supernatural risking his life to make a difference while secretly trying to make up for a harrowing event from his past. His world, however, takes an unexpected flip when he reaches out to and befriends Zandalee Joseph.

The Howdunit Series

It seems I've been posting a lot of art reference stuff but not much for the writer. So here it is.

Here is a great collection of writer's reference books called the Howdunit Series.

It's more for the Crime, Murder, Mystery writer but I'm sure it will be helpful to some of us Fantasy and Sci-Fi genre junkies as well. I've never actually read the books (I flipped through one very quickly a long time ago) but it was recommended to me by one of the Bat-editors at DC Comics (Jordan Gorfinkel, I think?) Whether you want to know what the proper police procedure for arresting a suspect, how to track a missing person, or knowing the correct number of poison mushrooms it takes to kill a man, this series apparently has the answers.