City of Heroes Invasion Issue 1
When I originally entered the Comic creator contest I was starting at square one with little to no guidance. The first issue of Invasion wasn't much of an improvement, though it was still an improvement. Since I wasn't limited by page count this time I was free to set up more story this time. That was simultaneously a blessing and a curse as I would later learn.
It was a blessing because it meant I could commit the space and pages to establishing the standing situation in the story. Unlike the world in the game, my comic was going to be a post apocalyptic setting with the alien Rikti having decimated the planet and taken control of the world. Many of the super powered individuals from the game have been killed and the power struggle that characterized the story of the game has been broken. I needed to set all of this down in the story. As you can see, I used the first ten pages to accomplish this.
From a technical stand point, this issue had little to speak up for. Each image is a screen cap from the game. The "hide" power came in real handy for this as it allowed me to take a lower level character into a higher level zone, grab the screen cap I needed, and then run like hell.
From an actual development stand point, I approached this much like witting a story. In hind sight, I can see that I started in the right place, but I didn't go far enough. I assembled the information I wanted to convey, and then made the issue to convey it. What I should have done is broken the information down into smaller snippets of specific points and concepts, taking a paragraph worth of information and rendering it down to an image or an idea versus a full description. A prime example of how this is an error is on page three, where I have a full page that is mostly text. I have seen comics that used this particular trick, a full page spread of information for a specific character. The mistake I made here was using it in a first issue. Good rule of thumb I've learned about comics: Comics are a visual medium. People don't want to read large amounts of text in a comic. If I were to remake this issue, well there are many, many things I would change. For this example, if I were to remake it I would omit that entire page and incorporate the information into the scenes themselves. Probably have Tri-volt asking why Wicked Blue was in the base and having Torroes explain it.
The actual comic begins on page 4... there was another mistake I made. You're four pages in before you actually start reading the comic. Another rule of thumb for comics: Get to the comic and do it fast. Have you ever seen a movie where there's a three or four minute "This is the history of this story" roll up? You know the "In the year 2099, there was a massive nuclear war where 99% of humanity was wiped out..." How often are those pre-rolls actually useful? I mean sure there are the pre-rolls in the Star Wars movies, but do we actually need to know that Darth Vader's ship is named the 'Devastator'? Same problem here. Four minutes is like four pages in the comic.
In the opening panels of page four, I deliberately made an effort to use sunny images, clear skies, clean streets; showing the "Hopeful city of the future" kind of idea. Then a serious and dramatic reversal in panel four to show a ruined and raved landscape complete for forbidding sky and destroyed buildings. You'll notice I even changed the colors used in the narrative boxes. I went from a warm orange and tan in the first three panels, to a cold blue and gray in the fourth.
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake I made in this issue was the massive 2 page spread advertisement on page ten and eleven. It's really a totally pointless inclusion and an abrupt interruption to the flow of the story. If I were to remake this issue I would certainly drop this spread.
When I originally made the comic, I felt really good about the flow of pages thirteen through sixteen. I thought I had done a decent job of showing Tri-volt to be a self serving opportunist who would charge Torroes double to go after two people. I thought I'd done a commendable job of showing Torroes as being concerned about his team mates and allies. Instead people were confused about Tri-volt and saw Torroes as being more psychotic then he actually is. I learned an important lesson from that: never believe the reader will infer the same outcome from minimal information. If I were to remake this issue, I would have Tri-volt state that he's a mercenary and that Torroes hired him to help save Wicked Blue. If a second target was going to be involved, it would cost him double. Likewise, I should have made Torroes' reaction to Tri-volt's comment more sedate and more in control. Instead of him slamming Tri-volt into the wall, I think a better reaction would have been for Torroes to turn to Tri-volt and plainly state what he says versus the border-line berserk appearance he had in the comic.
Overall this issue was more of a learning effort then a production effort, with the end result being mediocre at best..