Final Project

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Work in Progress

As you can see I haven't accomplished much. I work very much in pieces, inking in sections and swapping between pages to make sure things line up. Everything is inked without balloons. Page 2 hasn't been touched because it needs to be completely redrawn in certain spots, so I didn't include it. I'm testing out some grays in page 3 and nothing is final but I just needed to test and practice with that and eventually some word balloons. Will be continually posting as things change. PAGE 1:

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TEXT AND GRAYS TEST:

Response to Comic Book Lettering PDF

I am very grateful for the in-class tutorial and this PDF walkthrough for comic book lettering. I have been looking for a way to easily incorporate word balloon and sound effects because I have been unsuccessfully hand drawing everything in PaintTool SAI up until now which has no ruler or text tool. I cannot wait to start incorporating clean and neat word balloons and sound effects! Some things, like making voices quieter, were so obvious but I never realized how impactful they actually are. I see them all the time but never really stop to say "hey, that's a well thought out word balloon". Instead I think the reader takes it in subconciously which is pretty amazing because the ability to do that comes from some hardworker's crafting skill. If a word balloon was too big or too awkward we may stop reading and stare at it, taking us out of the story, so I am truly amazed in the small details of this practice. Not sure if I can post links in here, but I am cheap and would probably never pay for fonts. I found a site called FONTSPACE which has free fonts (under open source licensing, as in not stolen) which I have found work for just about all my programs I've tried it on. There's a comic book section with some great iconic fonts, too.

Page Layout

To make it clear, as I failed to do when submitting my script, this is only ACT 1 of my story. I thought it best to start from the very beginning because there was some confusion as to what was actually going on. PAGE 1:

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The Alter - Script

Not happy at all with this. Will be changing it ASAP.

Character Design Model Sheet and Facial Expressions

Atlas Fontaine, the protagonist:

 

Salt, the antagonist:

 

Dr. Sadie Sybil, the psychiatrist:

 

Avery Aidens, the love interest:

 

 

Refine Story Concept

Characters:
Atlas –> Protagonist
Salt -> Antagonist
Sadie -> Atlas’ friend and psychiatrist
Avery -> Atlas’ friend and coworker and later girlfriend

Main Problems:
-Atlas’ own problems standing up for himself and the fear of ending up alone
-Salt wants to erase Atlas’ existence from their shared brain
-Salt grows stronger as Atlas grows weaker (emotionally, they are the same physically)
-All four characters wanting to be their own person and conflicting with their own stances in life.

1. Act I
   Atlas and Sadie sit in a therapy session at Sadie’s practice. Sadie swings a large medallion on a string in front of Atlas, who falls to sleep. He reawakens as Salt, Atlas’ alter identity. We see he is tied to the chair he sits in. He lashes out, a deranged grin across his face, although he is incapable of breaking free. The two converse before Sadie says a single word: “compass”. Salt immediately reverts back to Atlas, who is thankful. Sadie tells him his medication and the therapies are working wonderfully, and he should mail in his refill as soon as he gets home. Little does he know Salt heard this too.
2. Plot Point 1
   Atlas is seen going to his mailbox and mailing his letter, believing his problems are done with, but is then overtaken by Salt in the night. Salt removes the letter and burns it. Confident, Atlas forgets to check the mailbox, as he had done in the past, and allows himself forget his problems for the day. He goes to work at a pet store, thinking that he’ll be able to keep this job. There, he converses with his coworker Avery, who has been helping him manage his obsessive compulsive behavior, and asks her out on a date, feeling well enough to start again. Salt disguises a set of pills with fake ones, slipping by Atlas’ notice in his happiness.
3. Act II
   Salt is back with a vengeance, able to come back even when Atlas is not asleep. He confronts Atlas’ now girlfriend Avery, telling her she is nothing but an attention seeker who will never be her own person. She is doomed to live out through the lives of others. He leaves Avery broken and reverts back to Atlas only after destroying the pet shop and Atlas’ book of jokes he had started to form for his future career return. He leaves a message of warning that Atlas finds when he awakens in the morning. It questions which one of them is the true identity. After receiving a breakup call from Avery, Atlas falls deeper into his depression, making Salt stronger than before.
4. Plot Point 2
   Sadie hasn’t received a call from Atlas in a week and when he doesn’t pick up the phone, decides to visit him at his home. She finds an angry Avery, dumping his belongings on to his porch. Confused, she lets herself in to find the house a mess. Atlas lies on the floor of the living room, hung over from another one of Salt’s drunken nights. She shakes him awake and he begins to tell her what happen. She tells him he needs to be strong. Suddenly, Salt awakens to beat Sadie out of the way, asserting his power over everyone. They argue, alerting the confused Avery still outside. Sadie begins to attempt to recover Atlas, with little success.
5. Act III
   Something in Sadie’s words allows Atlas to hear their conversation from within Salt’s hold, but it isn’t enough. Atlas cannot break through, as he has no hope left in him. Salt promises to end Sadie’s sessions and removes a gun from his pants. Before he can shoot, a book is thrown at him by a nosey Avery, who couldn’t quell her suspicions. Salt angrily states that he will end them both and Avery pleads for Atlas to come back, understanding the situation. She tells him she needs him to come back because she doesn’t know who she is either, but maybe they could find each other together. Salt falls and Sadie quickly disarms him. The two are able to recover Atlas from Salt’s grasp. Later, Atlas is seen at his fifth wedding, alongside Avery. An estranged grin crosses his face.

Casting Your Story

(My story has changed drastically as I found adding in archetypes and more characters conflicted with the short, simple story I had previously planned)

Hero/Protagonist-->
Name: Atlas Fontaine
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 165lbs
Beauty: He's okay
Strength: Average
Race and Ethnicity: White
Background: Highly obsessive compulsive as a child and continuing through adulthood. Has a history of mental illness including DID (dissociative identity disorder), formally known as multiple personality disorder. Married four times. Failed career as a comedian.
Desires: To get married and stay married and be successful in his career again.
Intelligence: Fair, has a hard time remembering things, common trait in DID cases.
Style of Outfit: Plain and casual.
Temperament: Very calm and kind. Humorous.
Obligations: To get rid of his alter (or other identity), Salt.

Atlas has struggled with his obsessive compulsive behavior throughout his entire life. He found relief for himself in comedy, and quickly became successful. After getting married for the first time at a very young age, his wife could not handle life with him any longer. The stress triggered a severe reaction in Atlas' psyche and caused a deep depression. When he finally was able to marry again, a new identity had come into his life, calling himself "Salt". Unknowing Atlas watched three more marriages quickly fail before he finally realized he was not alone in his head. He sought help from close friend and psychiatrist, Sadie Sybil, to get rid of Salt, but Salt seems to want something very similar.

Villain/Antagonist-->
Name: Salt
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 165lbs
Beauty: Takes more care of himself that Atlas
Strength: Above average, he runs on rage
Race and Ethnicity: White
Background: Salt developed sometime after his alter Atlas' first failed marriage. He believes Atlas doesn't deserve the body they share, as he is weak, and is determined to snuff out Atlas' identity for good. He is classified by Sadie as extremely violent, and will harm himself to harm Atlas. Salt has more control over the two's identity switch and can go between himself and Atlas faily often, causing Atlas to have large gaps in his memory. This made it very easy to cause Atlas' three other divorces.
Desires: To get rid of Atlas and do as he pleases.
Intelligence: Very intelligent. He is sometimes able to recall what Atlas has done.
Style of Outfit: Much flashier than Atlas.
Temperament: Manipulative and evil
Obligations: To get rid of his alter, Atlas.
Salt formed his own name and created his own look. He is fully aware that he was not the original alter, but fully believes he deserves it more than Atlas. He has gotten Atlas into a lot of trouble and caused him to lose any job the kinder of the two manages to get. He keeps them both in shape and presents himself differently from his alter, causing them to look distinctly different in the way they present themselves. Everything that makes Atlas weaker makes Salt stronger, so the more destruction he causes, the closer he gets to fading Atlas out for good.
Wise woman-->
Name: Dr. Sadie Sybil
Gender: Female
Age: 34
Height: 5’7”
Weight: Don’t ask (but it’s 150lbs)
Beauty: Average
Strength: Average
Race and Ethnicity: African American
Background: Sadie is a family friend of Atlas since their childhood. She worked her way through school, achieving her P.H.D., and is now a practicing psychiatrist. Realizing her friend had a problem, Sadie took in Atlas as her patient in return for an interesting case study. She has seen both Atlas and Salt, and is using multiple methods to try and repress the more evil of the two.
Desires: To find cures for mental illnesses and make a name for herself… or find a husband like her mother wants her to.
Intelligence: Very high
Style of Outfit: Business attire
Temperament: Patient, as she has to be, but firm
Obligations: To rid Atlas of his alter, Salt
Sadie believes she is ridding the world of Salt for the good of people around her. She uses a mixture of hypnosis, cognitive memory tricks, and medication, to help Atlas fight his inner demon. She does, however, realize that Atlas needs to find more strength in himself, or her therapies will be useless. She struggles with her own insecurities of never becoming what she wants herself to be.
Child-->
Name: Avery Aidens
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 110lbs
Beauty: “Cute”
Strength: More inner strength than outer
Race and Ethnicity: White
Background: Never really sure of who she was and who she wants to be, Avery floats around from job to job, finally resting at one in a pet store, where she meets Atlas. She sympathizes with his obsessive compulsive behavior, but is unaware of his alter. She fills in for him when he disappears for days at a time.
Desires: Make a name for herself and do something worthwhile
Intelligence: Nothing to brag about
Style of Outfit: Casual
Temperament: Overjoyed, masking the deep-rooted insecure nature
Obligations: To aid Atlas in his struggles with his mental illnesses
Avery is very innocent. She hasn’t seen much of the world, but wants to know it all. She works very hard to motivate herself each morning and likes to think she has an impact on the people she talks to, which she probably doesn’t. She likes Atlas because he likes it when she talks to him, and she feeds on the attention.

All the characters share their own form of an identity crisis. They all want to be their own person (some more extreme than others) and make a name for themselves somehow. They have to answer the questions: "Who am I?" and "What do I want?"

Archetypal Figures in Movies

I chose one of my favorite strong-female role model movies, Mulan. The story revolves around Mulan, a Chinese girl trying her hardest to honor her family by following the traditions handed down to all of the female gender. She isn't particularly good at any of that, and when her father is drafted into the war against the Huns, a savage army trying to take down the Emperor, she disguises herself as a boy to fight in his place.
Archetypal Figures:

• Great mother: Mulan’s mother is pretty loving and understanding. No one blames Mulan for her failures, including her mother. She isn’t the strongest character, but she does have a kind and gentle personality to be a more important one.
• Father: Mulan’s father is integral to the story. He is the source of her desire to do what she does. It is almost as though it is his honor that Mulan is trying to obtain, as she looks to him for guidance.
• Child: It may be a stretch, but I see Cri-kee the cricket as a child-like archetype in this movie. He doesn’t say anything but a series of chirps, but in his innocence, he helps Mushu , and therefore Mulan, in their quest to fight the Huns.
• Devil: Shan Yu is the major antagonist in this movie. He kills many Chinese soldiers and even an entire village of innocent people. Doesn’t get much more evil.
• God: I suppose the temple guardians would play the role of “God”. The spirits in the temple also watch over the family from whom they came from. We never see any save for Mushu, but they apparently do wake up at times.
• Wise old man: I see the Emperor as the keeper of all knowledge in this movie. Proverb and all, he sums up the movie quite nicely with his all-knowing eyes and words of true wisdom. He is also the first one to bestow “honor” upon Mulan and her family, if one thinks of honor in that way. Personally, I believe Mulan achieves her own honor by following her own destiny.
• Wise old woman: Mulan’s grandmother is a wise, joke-cracking, old woman. She gives Mulan the “lucky” cricket, Cri-kee, who helps the girl on her journey.
• The trickster: Mushu starts off as a kind of selfish jokester. He is a failed guardian, as he is unsuccessful at saving the man from the beginning of the film who he was apparently watching over. Like Mulan, he has something to prove, and takes his destiny into his own hands, but not without some clever jokes and a misleading note for the Emperor’s advisor.
• Hero: Mulan is obviously the hero of this story. She risks her life for her father and ends up saving all of China. Not your average girl.

Story Concept

Atlas Fontaine is a 32 year old wreck. With four failed marriages under his belt already, not even his career as a comedian survived. He thinks nothing else could go wrong because, how could it? He has nothing left to give. But he's forgotten to send an important letter and his final spark may just fade out for good.

There is another character but the story maily focuses around Atlas' life struggles so I wanted to include a great deal of inner dialogue because he will spend most of the comic outwardly silent and inwardly talkative.