Ideas: a steaming order of concept, hold the proof

How valuable is an idea? If one subscribes to the thought that there is an "ideaspace" or a collective unconscious, then the idea has no value as a unit. You see this in writing classes--instructor gives out an assignment with strict guidelines as to what a story/poem/script should have, and everyone in the class will come up with something different. Some will be good, some will be dreadful, but no two will look the same. It begs the question: is there such a thing as a brilliant idea? I don't think so. There have been times when I've said that someone's idea is brilliant, but that's conversational shorthand for "I think there's promise here that you can actualize." There are good and bad ideas, surely, but I don't think that an idea, just as a little nugget of thought, can be brilliant in and of itself. It's why there's such a thing as a proof of concept--something may sound great on paper as a pitch, or as a concept batted around between friends and colleagues, but the idea falls flat when put into execution by mediocre talents.

This whole train of thought came from a few sources: Alan David Doane's 15 Way's to Make Comics Better, the comments it spawned, James Sime's suggestions for what retailers could do, Neil Kleid's column on "Ideaspace," various things by Larry Young, including Proof Of Concept and some of his columns, conversations with a few like-minded individuals, supplemental material to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Crack-Up, all those damn list memes, and a whole bunch of comics(x) activism.

Originally, I read Larry's comments as being big on the idea that "making comics better" can only be realized by making comics, but I later realized that either my reading comprehension skills fell off for a bit, or I was confusing things he said with things I've read elsewhere. Instead, I think the crux of his argument rests on that, in "pushing comics forward," action should trump talking about action. In some respects, I agree with the "put up or shut up" train of thought. Look at guys like James Sime or Jeff Mason, who are walking the walk, or a guy like Jason Richards, who is about to walk that path in his own way. In the past, I advocated doing things like forcing comics down the throats of those close to you, but I'm starting to doubt that method. My wife discovered Crayon Shinchan on her own (I left a copy in the bathroom, which I still maintain is the best place to reach a captive audience), and the comics I gave out as Christmas gifts a few years ago got some oohs and aahs, but most are sittting under a thin layer of dust. But, if that method of comics activism is working for you, keep on with it.

I will say, though, that the role of the informed pundit is to take an idea and throw it out for discussion. The discussion may or may not lead to consensus, but theoretical engagement is action enough for me--especially if it inspires or provokes someone to come up with something of his or her own. Perhaps I'm showing my own bias here, as a blogger and a former website columnist/interviewer/reviewer guy, but I think these modes of discussion are vital, if in a different way than the product itself. If I had to make an absolute, though, I'd amend it as follows: if you want to make comics, then fucking make comics. Stop talking about making comics, stop dreaming up ways to get in with people so you can someday put out a comic for someone else somewhere down the line, and stop bitching about people getting gigs out of jealousy or because they're taking jobs away from "real" comics writers, the kind you hope to be.

Of course, it's easy for me to say this, because I currently have no desire to create comics--it's not a format that appeals to me where I'm at right now. If I did have that ambition, I'm sure I'd fall prey to the same talky-talky-talky on the subject. I'd probably be more interested in creating comics if I could draw, because I'm a control freak who doesn't play well with others. Also, for as much as I love the medium, I don't think I'm ready or able to tackle something so reliant upon a visual element. Also, I'm having way too much fun playing with prose, rediscovering poetry and doing the whole blogging thing, so my writing time is pretty much booked at the moment. But I won't say "never," because I'd hate to be called on it later on, and I'd like to leave the door open should my opinion change later.

So, considering my initial misreading, how can I make better comics without actually making comics? I can't, I suppose. But that doesn't mean I won't spend entirely too much time typing up thoughts on it.

Even though I don't want to make comics today, I thought it would be a fun exercise (for myself, at least--you may be bored to tears) to try to comic up with fifty ideas for comics I would consider making. Not having any aspirations frees me up to share, because I'm not considering anything as proprietary knowledge (and, again, the value isn't in the idea, but in the execution of the idea). Plus, trying to come up with ideas can be daunting even if most stories can be broken down to one, three, seven, twenty, thirty-six or thirty-seven basic plot structures, because the magic is in the details. When I was working towards building a portfolio for graduate school applications, I'd get that "fear of a blank page" (to completely misquote Public Enemy), which means I may come back to this if I get rejected and have to do another portfolio next year. I only set a few ground rules for myself:

• No using ideas that I had come up with before. Almost everyone I know that does some kind of artistic thing has a journal, or some other method they have for keepign track of passing ideas (you can see some of F. Scott Fitzgerald's in that book linked up top). I refused to fall back on those, simply because it would be breaking the spirit of the excercize.

• No stories with already-established comic properties. The ideas have to be something that could be put into motion now. On some of the more recent historical ones, that might be a stretch, but it's somewhat easier to twist things around to get past the source material than it is to take, say, a Spider-Man story and twist it into something else entirely.

• Tossing every idea--no matter how cliche, stupid or redundant--into the post. Because they can't all be winners. Most of them won't be. Also, some might already be comics I'm not aware of, either because of ignorance or forgetfulness.

So, now that that's covered... I'm not saying that they're good ideas, but they're what I came up with when pressed. In most cases, they're purposefully undeveloped, as they are meant to be a springboard more than anything else. I wanted them to be open to tweaking, switching settings, character gender, relationships to fit the kind of story someone might want to tell.

Ed's Idea Store (with nods to Neil Kleid)

1. High school kid who works at a resort has to come to terms with getting a guest pregnant after a one week stand.
2. A 19th century paleontologist spends as much time trying to decipher the pattern in his love life as he does trying to decipher the big pile of bones he's brought back to England from Mongolia.
3. A comics biography of Gregory Corso, focusing on his time in prison when he discovers poetry.
4. A week in lives of three teenagers in the '50s immediately following the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper.
5. Two brothers bond over the deaths of obscure famous people as a way of saying "I love you" to one another.
6. A behind-the-scenes recounting of the last Hamlet performance by the Booth brothers, which concluded three weeks prior to Lincoln's assassination.
7. An anthology set around the theme of music, containing stories of varying lengths, tones and settings (examples of settings: strip club, elevator, car stuck in traffic, radio station, DJ battle, wedding, '50s jazz club, musical, etc.)
8. Two rival teams battle in a poetry slam, while two members of one team are going through a divorce.
9. Two people are on a cross-country trek from California to New York. One has Tourrette's. The emphasis is on language, both printed and spoken, and how we communicate.
10. Retelling of the first major tank battle at the Battle of Cambrai, told from the perspective of three British soldiers.
11. Fragrant Harbor: A man in his late fifties returns to Hong Kong after living in the U.S. for forty years, and has difficulty relating to the people he grew up with.
12. Family goes on daytime talk show pretending to be dysfunctional, but the experience ends up adding real dysfunction after the cameras stop filming.
13. A graphic novel designed to appear as an illustrated journal from the perspective of a cartoonist suffering from bipolar disorder.
14. A Bildungsroman focusing on two boys of the Dayak tribe in Indonesia, about to enter their rite of passage to manhood.
15. A crime scene clean up crew starts committing crimes to get more business.
16. Three fast food franchises engage in industrial espionage.
17. The private lives of three Studio 54-type velvet rope door people, set in the disco era.
18. A series of anthologies presenting tales from various mythologies and folklores without stripping out the guts of it (gypsy folktales, Egyptian mythology, Greek mythology, Chinese mythology, etc.)
19. A party planner who caters primarily to the superhero set, and does "debutante parties" for new cape types on the scene.
20. An infomercial producer is prohibited from marketing any products that don't actually work, who goes on a quest to find something he can market legally in a capitalist redemption tale, or something.
21. Woman visits her family for the holidays, finds her alcoholic mother's secret stash of vodka bottles, but keeps it secret because other family members have kept her secrets.
22. College student is haunted by the ghost of William Blake, who becomes his sounding board for the things going on in his life.
23. Someone sets up a Lord of the Flies-type experiment in a research lab.
24. Murder mystery set in an ecovillage/intentional community.
25. Boy meets girl in his mappoint quest to find an early '90s rave. She's playing the part, but is writing a magazine piece on the culture.
26. Street gang members congregate in and around a '50s Coney Island tattoo shop.
27. A couple (one atheist, one Christian) struggle with hope and faith, as well as understanding one another, after the loss of a child.
28. Man moves to Whittier, Alaska to die in relative seculusion, but becomes involved with the community (a strange one, where 90% of the population lives in one giant building) before he dies.
29. An Afghani woman struggles with her family in her attempts to become a journalist now that she's legally able to do so.
30. This one may be a little precious or artsy-fartsy, but fuck it--a minicomic where each page is an illustrated haiku. Not just the 5-7-5 syllable count haiku, but traditional haiku. Cribbed from Wikipedia (and much more at the link): "The haiku poet (haijin) writes about a moment in time, a brief experience that stands out. The traditional haiku poet usually focused on nature, although modern poets may have the urban setting as their venue. Often, at least in translation, the subject matter of many Japanese haiku may seem banal, but the subtle linkage or juxtaposition between the two sets of images within a haiku will be found to contain an interesting insight or spiritual message." Each page could either be strictly illustrated so as to try capturing that time essence visually, or could be content tied into a traditional haiku.
31. A modern retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, replacing the underworld with a gang's turf and getting rid of all the fantastical stuff. Or, perhaps doing it in the '30s with the mafia.
32. 1066: An Age of Bronze-esque look at the Norman Conquest.
33. Father discovers his son is a professional hitman in the week leading up to his daughter's wedding.
34. A forensic linguist is called in to discover the identity of a serial killer, but finds something oddly familiar in the notes left behind.
35. City guy tries to become accustomed to life in a rural area.
36. A television crew covers the Vietnam conflict, faces opposition from both the enemy and the US military.
37. Managing Editor of a small literary magazine aspires to the top spot, playing everyone else against each other in an attempt to take over.
38. I don't quite have the vocabulary to express this in terms not related to film, so... an comic written like an ensemble film (you know, like a lot of Robert Altman flicks) dealing with gentrification in a newly-hip urban area.
39. Five college friends try to stay connected as their lives pull them in different directions -- ooh, original.
40. Girl tries to find the secret language of the world, looking for signs and symbols in every day life, and her family has trouble getting the "real world" into her.
41. Guy gets dragged into running for local office in a special election, gets caught up in the small town political machine.
42. A fictional tale set against the backdrop of Negro League Baseball, focusing on an up-and-coming pitcher.
43. A small group of people take to breaking and entering to fund their non-profit group under the rationalization that the ends justify the means, but most become enamored with life as criminals.
44. Story of two brothers from China who come to the US to work on the Transcontinental Railroad in the mid-1800s, and the rift that comes between them (maybe with the title Suffering Strength, playing off the etymology of the slur "coolie").
45. Astrophel: struggles of an aspiring, sycophantic Hollywood hanger-on (because it's not that far of a leap to get from "star lover" to "starfucker," and I'm totally captivated by the idea of people whoring themselves out to get ahead).
46. Guy develops superpowers, but refuses to use them because he thinks they're a sign of the devil.
47. 1980s psychiatrist uses MDMA (ecstasy) in his practice, going against the new laws prohibiting its use.
48. Romance comic set in the heydey of late '70s/early '80s graffiti, with a tagging-as-courtship-dance kind of vibe.
49. Martial arts comic on the development of Wing Chun, working off the common presumption that "Wing Chun, according to legend, was a style of Chinese martial arts technique designed by the Shaolin monks for the smaller stature of women fighters."
50. Man gets breaks out of the holding pen of a police station, hitches a ride home with a police officer, and goes on the run until a family member turns him in.

I was tempted to throw "a cinemanga of My Dinner With Andre" on there, but I'm trying to be semi-serious for a change.

Not that I'm a writer, or that anyone would ever ask, but I also thought briefly discussing where the ideas came from might be interesting. I've tried breaking them down into categories, but there's overlap in some cases.

• Many of them came from reading. Not much of a shock, really, considering that most of my leisure time is spent with books. #2 came from some book (the title of which escapes me presently) on the history of the Beat Generation of writers and artists. #6 came up while I was reading Stanley Wells's Shakespeare: For All Time, which had a publicity picture of John Wilkes Booth and two of his brothers in a production of Julius Caeser, along with a few paragraphs on their productions. In the picture, John Wilkes looked disturbed. The accompanying text highlighted Edwin Booth as the most memorable thespian of the three, which made me think of sibling rivalry on the stage. Also, three weeks before Booth assassinated Lincoln, he performed Hamlet, in which a monarch is violently dispatched. All these elements made me think this might be a story worth telling. #26 was inspired by Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos by Samuel M. Steward--who also wrote gay erotica under the name Phil Andros--but transplanted to an area with which I'm more familiar. Much of that book had to deal with sexuality, and I'd probably play up the relationship between an awkward young man and his attraction to an experienced tattoo artist, if I stuck with the source material. Much of the historical fiction ideas also came from reading (#10, #11, #32, #44, #47 and #49). This type of thing can be stretched out further--other ideas came from listening to NPR, watching documentaries on television, and generally trying to follow the path of lifelong education.

• Write what you know, and the people around you. An oft-repeated maxim, but the method yielded a few ideas. #1 is something that happened to me while I worked at a resort growing up, but written large--the situation never happened, but it easily could have. #5 is basically how my little brother and I stay in touch. #8 is another thing from my backstory written large--I never actually "slammed," but I did spent entirely too much time doing performance poetry for about seven years, and even in just reading poetry at events and clubs, I noticed the competition element that goes with that creative process (and, lately, have seen similar competitive tics in the comics world). #12 came from a position of observation--for work, I've gone to a few daytime talk show tapings where I've seen producers trying to amp up the discord between family members, and from watching some shows and thinking that these people have to be playing a part, because no one could possibly be that dysfunctional in real life. #21 is also close to home, with the protagonist's gender changed. #35 should be obvious to anyone who's ever had to suffer through me bitching about my current environment. #41 came from a guy I know who's getting involved in local politics in my home town, but with the scope narrowed down to localize it a little more, his role changed to make the protagonist more central to the action, and adding a different internal conflict. #50 isn't my story, but it's my father's.

• Find something outside your comfort zone. In some cases, just thinking visually forced me outside my comfort zone, which got me to #48--I'm captivated by graffiti, and I think it's something that tranlates well to comics. Similarly, #30 came from visual thinking--specifically, visual juxtaposition reflecting idea juxtaposition, as well as a panel meter to poetic meter juxtaposition. Trying to work poetry in informed #40 (although, looking over the list again, it sounds highly reminiscent of Sam Kieth's Zero Girl), which came, in part, from Saul Williams's metaphor-heavy wordplay (quick example: his line about his name--Saul Stacy--and it's similarity to "solstice"). Also, I challenged myself by trying to get something "musical" across, which yielded a few ideas. I might actually try to use #7 if I have to redo the fiction portfolio. The Orpheus myth I used in #31 is heavily dependent on music, and both suggested settings play to music I love--jazz and hip hop.

I'd love to see others throwing ideas out there (maybe not fifty--I'm so glad I decided against doing a hundred, and even fifty seemed an insurmountable number halfway through), but people tend to hold their ideas close to their chests. I'd recommend doing it, though. It was a fun learning experience. For example, I surprised myself by coming up with two superhero-related concepts, because I didn't think I'd have any. I also surprised myself by not giving up once I got frustrated, because that tends to be a trend with me.

As I've been working on this for a little over a week, Steven Grant weighs in on the topic of ideas as well, maybe giving some more support to the concept of "ideaspace." It's a slightly different look (and a better written one). In it, he says "[s]uccess doesn't come from generating ideas. Success comes from being able to tell the good ideas from the bad ones, which is a much, much trickier thing," and that's quite true. If there's something here that strikes you as being good (or something that could be molded into something good), and you want to do something with it, by all means, go ahead.

Just don't fuck it up. Make some better comics, already.