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2000AD creators & people trying to become 2000AD creators

Started by Dudley, 02 January, 2004, 08:36:44 PM

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Floyd-the-k

on a different note - if you want to be an art droid, why not just draw a lot? Michael Leunig is a great artist and he started doing cartoons long before he could draw
  sorry for the slight irrelevance

yours with too much time on his hands

Link: http://www.curlyflat.net/" target="_blank">not very 2000 ad ish really


Tiplodocus

Hi Dud.

I'm still in the "trying" camp but my story so far has been as follows...

A couple of years ago, I decided I'd have a go at writing in my spare time.  

I needed an outlet for my creative juices and I used to draw comic strips for my own amusement when younger so I thought; why not try 2000AD.

Like Art, the guidelines in Prog 2001 provided some inspiration.  

I was also inspired by the fact that I'd come up with an idea for a Future Shock back in 1995 which I'd never sent in but was amused to see the same idea turn up completely independantly in BANZAI BATTALLION.

I was also getting pretty hacked off with what I percieved to be the waste of FUTURE SHOCKS as a format; greedy man does something - "twist" is he dooms himself and earth.   Yawn.


So I started writing Future Shocks and submitting them.  Like Art, I thought 1 a month would be a good start and banged in my first three very quickly.  They were, without exception, appalling.  And I got pretty stock responses of "not our bag" within a couple of months.


I then joined the scriptdroids forum which is an invaluable tool for getting quick feedback on your ideas. Often the best feedback you get is "No, that story has been done before and you are adding nothing new to it".


I also did a bit more reading about writing; not just comics but screenplays and novels - storytelling in general. (Incidentally there is a great article along the lines of your idea in ZARJAZ Issue 2).

My next three submissions then disappeared into a void somewhere in the Command Module.  Understandably busy, it was sixteen months and several polite prods before Jamie Boardman came back with some very specific feedback in December 2003 which encouraged me by showing taht he'd read the scripts in detail and not just tossed them away after the synopsis.  (Actually, Jamie, I'm still waiting on feedback from one...)

I didn't just twiddle my thumbs while waiting for Feedback on these three stories. I also:

- went to Moniave Comic Festival and interviewed John Wagner, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy so that I could get a profile page on this site.

- the profile page allowed me to bang up scripts into the scripttest section of this site - Go visit it (everyone who hasn't fallen to sleep by this point in my post) and read scripts by Art and PVS and Others.  So far, these have been fairly well received and again it's more valuable feedback.

- went to Dreddcon and did Pitchfest.  My first pitch, SPERM COUNT was a knob gag infested crowd pleaser but was well beaten by Art.

- The favourable respoonse to my SPERM convinced me to commission under-rated and under-used artdroid  Adrian Bamforth to draw it up for me. (I'm selling a load of my old comics and graphic novels shortly to pay for it). We submitted this to HEAVY METAL magazine but got a knockback. Art as kindly agreed to give it a home in a future issue of FutureQuake.  If you can afford this (or if you are silver tongued enough to get an artist to draw for free) then I would recommend this - seeing your script on the page gives you a whole new perspective on it. Adrian made my filth look really classy and also added some great touches that helped the story along.


- this years Pitchfest entry PLAYMATE CHAINSAW ATTACK BATTALLION (from an original throwaway line by Wils or Gary Wilkinson or DXB - I forget, sorry) was also well received.  It even got Tharg's vote so I'm writing that up and sending it in even though it wasn't announced as winner.

- I've done the odd (crap) spot illustration for Solar Wind and I've submitted a few ideas for stories for consideration for the next issue.

- I've also knocked up a couple of synopsis for COMMANDO stories which I'll be sending in shortly.


I think that keeping WRITING is the key - constantly revising and rethinking ideas.  

Also 2000AD shouldn't be the be all and end all of your writing dreams.  If all you want to get published is a Future Shock then by all means try but the more you practice at writing (Anything - didn't Alan Grant used to write hororscopes for Women's magazines?) the better you'll get.


Listening to the feedback you get is also key - amazing how many people DO NOT do this!

Only send the ideas in when you are completely happy with them - Tharg and co. have to wade through a lot of rubbish and sending half-baked ideas in almost certainly doesn't help.  

I get more writing done in winter when I get the train into work.  Sitting on my organiser at the moment I've got a couple of Past Imperfect ideas, a couple of Futureshocks and part five of Judge Dredd: Moon in the Undercity - the time to write these has all been courtesy of Scotrail and it's vague timetable.

Anybody still awake? Learning how to express myself clearly and concisely is something I will aslo have to learn....

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=submissions&page=scripttest" target="_blank">Here's a link to the script test section

Be excellent to each other. And party on!