When I was a teenager, I wanted to write my own comics. They would have been, of course, pretty awful. Note that I said “write,” not “draw.” What artistic skill I have is hard-won and nowhere in the neighborhood of professional. It can literally take me weeks to finish one drawing, and even then I’m rarely satisfied.
My gawd, I don’t have that kind of time! Not when I can write a decent introduction to a novel in about a week to ten days.
I was watching some Starz program on TV the other day about comic books and their impact on Hollywood, particularly now, when the technology finally caught up with the premise, and I went to bed that night and dreamed. Oh, did I dream.
I dream of an artist as dedicated to the vision as I am, who loves the material and wants to imagine it in a visual medium. I dream of a graphic novel–no, half a dozen or more graphic novels, eventually. The Infinity Brand. Sometimes dark, but ultimately hopeful.
I imagine the characters brought to life by the stroke of a pen, their visual impact a gut punch to the consciousness. I imagine the Lady of Blades, magic swirling around her, stepping out through a mirror with a sword in each hand and I grin.
Nearly all of my editors and several reviewers have said, “these would make great graphic novels.” Thank you, I think so too. Now all I need to find is an artist who thinks so too. One that won’t flake out because it’s a big job. And, yes, it’s a big job.
A graphic novel can be a straight shot into Hollywood these days. Road to Perdition, 300, Sin City. Gawds, the effects needed to pull off a good Infinity story would still challenge the technology. Spells floating around the mages, the way they’d unfold when cast, or, better yet, the way the mana strands start to struggle in the mage’s hands when the spell’s get too complex. And a transit tube? Instant passage from one location to another?
And what I wouldn’t give to see an imp on the big screen. Quickfingers would give Gollum or Yoda a run for their money as a CGI wonderkin.
So I’m shopping for artists. Serious people who want to make something damn cool and take the chance of reaching for the stars with it.
Infinity in a graphic novel would be stupendous. On the big screen it would be magnificent. As I’m writing it I can sometimes see the scenes unfolding and it makes me lose my breath.
As I mentioned to my oldest son. Infinity could be American “manga.” Come to think of it, it wouldn’t make bad Japanese manga, assuming one preferred that sort of artwork.
I’m not kidding about the dream, by the way. I spent a long sleep mulling it over. Done right, the sky would quite literally be, as they say, the limit.
