Thread "Writer seeks artist to help resurrect a project" in forum "Networking & Community Projects*"

Posted at 6:01PM, Jan. 10, 2008

H'okay, so the comic is called Dead Men Tell No Tales. As you can probably tell from this title it's a pirate comic.

The basic premise of this comic would be to give an accurate impression of what life was like for Pirates, without the glossy Hollywood coating of Pirates of the Caribbean, whilst still retaining a large fantasy element. The main character, Jakob Sanford, stuck on the Island of Tortuga,(which was a real place by the way), joins a crew to get away from the debauched and dangerous town - only to find himself immersed in a crew of violent pirates he is now unable to avoid. Forced to prove his worth by them, he slowly begins to become that which he fears, until he becomes known as Calico Jake and is feared by ordinary folk as such. Until then he is swept along with the crew of Captain "Howlin' Mad" James Cooke - a relatively old pirate who has gained a lot of respect in the community through many successful raids on merchant vessels. Unbeknownst to the captain, his bosun, the russian pirate Vladimir Nerschevik, has an agenda all his own. He wishes to find his old ship The Twisted Serpent, and salvage it from the Sable Bank, (a mystic Island where the cult known only as "The Albatross", live), in order to retrieve Odysseus' map to Aeolus' cave.
Why? Because Aeolus was the guardian of the "Bag of Winds", which was, in effect, a way to control the weather. The Bosun is after this bag, as whoever holds it is virtually invincible on the water.
The rest of the story would maintain a fantasy element, borrowing from Ancient Greek, Aztec, Viking and even Saxon lore in terms of deities and artefacts etc to keep the story itself becoming too dry - the actual infrastructure and rules of pirate life have been researched thoroughly and would be depicted accurately.
Not so the sailing, but I'm working on it at the moment.

There's no real preferred art style, the only guidelines I can give is that is has to look at least semi-realistic. I have got characters designed with my own limited art skills, so anyone interested post here and I can give you a script sample and let you see the characters to have a go at drawing them if you like the project.

In all honesty I have a good feeling about this idea - it's been bouncing around for ages and all that's needed is an artist for the moment.

We will need a colourist later though…

Posted at 1:01AM, Jan. 14, 2008

What is it about this idea that no one likes? Seriously. It's a good idea! It's well written cos black_emerald and I are in actual fact authors and have a lot of experience with writing for character etc. Zac was once interested in this project, but was far too busy to get the ball rolling - to be honest he does too many comics!
Artist gets to join in the creative process a l'il bit too, forgot to mention that.
I really hope someone out there decides to take a chance on this one.

Posted at 8:01AM, Jan. 15, 2008

What is it about this idea that no one likes? Seriously. It's a good idea!

It IS a good idea, and I really like the plot - but the number of writers looking for artists on this site by far outweighs the number of artists looking for writers - and this, I'm sad to say, seems to be the norm.

If I wasn't swamped with my own projects and school application, I'd be all over this story. Keep looking, and I'm sure you'll find someone. :) Post on other sites, too, and maybe mention it on other parts of the board - this particular subforum isn't very highly frequented.

Posted at 4:01PM, Jan. 17, 2008

I'll be honest, this seems pretty cool to me…. I have been crazy busy- but I could always fit in something really cool. Art wise you can check out very few samples at blu3fir3.com. Obviously I don't have anything like that there but it sounds like it might be a fun challenge.If you would'nt mind showing a sample script and a few characters I might like to talk about it.
Were you thinking of going all the way to publishing with this also because it seems like a very finished idea so that could be cool. Let me know what you think,

_p_type

Posted at 12:01AM, Jan. 22, 2008

Well, seeing as that'n above fell through, we're still without an artist for this project.

Posted at 6:01PM, Jan. 23, 2008

I'm still searching, oh just searching, just searching and getting quite doooown! For no artists, seem to find the time to check this ooooooout!
(Sung to the tune of "I feel pretty")

Posted at 2:01PM, Jan. 26, 2008

Just a bump today. Still looking. For details, see above…

Posted at 11:01PM, Jan. 31, 2008

hmmm, I like the concept so far, I'm not sure if I may qualify for the art end, but you can check my art stuff at my dA http://reashi.deviantart.com/, pm me if you're interested and we can talk more on the matter : D

Posted at 10:02AM, Feb. 2, 2008

I wouldn't mind. I could do a couple of pages a month, so long as my own comic doesn't suffer.

Posted at 5:02PM, Feb. 6, 2008

This is still open - consider that the comic may well get published if it's of good enough all-around quality - and it'll get mirrored on a couple other webcomic sites, so it'll be a good way to showcase your work…

Posted at 5:02PM, Feb. 6, 2008

Just a worthless opinion, but lose the gods and majical powers element. Everything else seems great. Of course, look at Cowboys and Aliens taking off… Web comic readers seem to have very mixed tastes…

There is a Writers contest on with a $150 prize and exposure to go along with it. It's kicking around here somewhere in the forums for the last few days. Deadline for entries is the end of this month. If you really want to try out your concept, a public judging with it stacked against other entries is a real smelter…

Posted at 4:02AM, Feb. 7, 2008

I'll look into it, but as to the Gods / Magic element, if they weren't involved then the plot itself would be very very dry - the real activities of pirates were far from glamourous; raiding other ships for things like spices and silks rather than gold etc. So my friend and I decided that to keep the story interesting, certain mythic elements could be incorporated - whether the mythical objects they search for actually exist and are found in the story you'll have to wait and find out…
But thanks for the input. :D

Posted at 7:02AM, Feb. 7, 2008

Hmm. Would you and your friend do pirate fan fiction? You incorperated the mythic elements to keep your story from being "dry" and I understand that, but the first solution that comes to my mind there is to craft interesting outside elements around your pirate core. Very difficult to do freestyle without working from something else, but it can be done. I prefer to build on the work of others though, especially if the elements are versitile and varied. I can suggest….

But you probably already went through your fan fiction phase and don't want to go back?

Posted at 7:02PM, Feb. 11, 2008

Not entirely sure what you're getting at there… Fan fiction phase? I've never written any! And anyways, I like the idea as is - this is the comic's concept that I came up with in collaboration with my friend the other writer, (black_emerald).
Bottom line, all I'm looking for is an artist…

But seriously I'm not sure what you're getting at there, soz.

Posted at 4:07AM, Jul. 30, 2009

Time to resurrect this idea I think. I'm still interesting in writing it as long as I can find an artist who can do it justice.
Consider this a bump, details are still the same as at the top, and if this takes off, if we can make it good, I'd like to try to take it to publication.
Many thanks to anyone who expresses interest or offers advice.