129 replies to this topic

[John Paul Fitch]

Future Noir

An Anthology set in the world of Blade Runner.

Hi everyone.

I’m hatching a cunning plan to put together an anthology set in a world very similar to that of the pseud-cyberpunk sci-fi classic Blade Runner. That is, a world of future, scuzzy, grungy , punk noir.

What I’m looking for is short stories, 10 pages maximum. They don’t have to be set in LA, they don’t have to be set on Earth, they can be off-world on a colonised Moon or Mars…they can be at the bottom of a polluted sea…they can be on anything at all as long as it fits into the aesthetic of the world of Blade Runner.

I’m looking for writers and artists to post their pitches, so as we don’t overlap on similar stories.

If a creative team can get together and put in a piece, that’s great, but if there are single artists and writers who need pairing up, then we’ll look at doing that too.

What are you waiting for? Get scribbling!

[mattgarvey1981]

*ahem*
http://forums.millar...ew-sci-fi-book/

[Jon James]

What are you after in the pitch? Brief/detailed synopsis, full script etc?

[John Paul Fitch]

Post a synopsis, or send it to me if you want instead. i'll let you know if there's a similar story in the works or not.

*ahem*
http://forums.millar...ew-sci-fi-book/

Matt, that's incredible and I had no idea you had done this!

Best of luck with that!

[mattgarvey1981]

Best of luck with that!

That mean you don't want it for your anthology?

[John Paul Fitch]

That mean you don't want it for your anthology?

If you have 10 pages that have a self contained story then YES!!!

[Sarah Horrocks]

What sort of deadlines are we looking at/for?

[Sarah Horrocks]

Also...color/no color? Size?

[mattgarvey1981]

If you have 10 pages that have a self contained story then YES!!!

Where is this going to be printed and sold?
I don't mean to be sceptical about this, but it was about a year ago you were in this forum calling for writers and artists for Flux UK.
What happened with that?
You said that it was going to be sold at forbidden planet over here in the UK, which is a huge national comic superstore. But it was only sold on the website forbiddenplanet.co.uk which isn't the superstore over here. .the .com site is.

If you could give us all some more info about your plans for this, it would help a lot.

Cheers

Matt

[John Paul Fitch]

Deadline wise, nothing set at this point. We can wait for input from all creators, to see how many stories we could be looking at. I'd hope for a minimum of 8-10 stories, 5-10 pages long. A 10 pager should take no more than 2-3 months for an artist to produce.

Convention wise, Kapow is most likely out of the question for sales. It'd be too short notice to get everything together.

Matt's questions:

Where is this going to be printed and sold?

We can debut digitally at first, put it up for print on demand or digital download, then, roughly a month or 6 weeks later we can move to printing (hopefully). I know the editors at a few publishers and have some other contacts in the industry, so we can pursue that. I don't think this should be through WTFC at all.

I don't mean to be sceptical about this, but it was about a year ago you were in this forum calling for writers and artists for Flux UK.
What happened with that?

*deep breath* Okay, I'll be completely honest with everyone here. Flux was a strange one. Through six months worth hard work and a lot of persistance, I managed to put FLUX UK together on my own, initially with the backing of WTFC. I made contact with Kevin O'Donnell at Forbidden Planet and after several months of negotiating, made the deal to have FLUX UK sold in Forbidden Planet.

WTFC were in the middle of negotiating new printing and distribution deals at that time with printers and distributers in the US and in London. Despite their best intentions a lot of shipments didn't get sent out on time. A lot of people didn't get the books they'd ordered, myself included. I missed out on two major conventions in Australia because of this and was out of pocket (for a not insubstantial amount of money) personally. I'm not the only one. I'd like to make it clear that I never received a penny from WTFC, I was never a paid empolyee, I did the whole thing in my spare time, with two young children, a wife and a mortgage, just like most comic creators. I did FLUX UK because of a love for the medium and a total impatience with the current industry. I thought "Why wait around for someone else to publish the work of independent creators like me, why not try to make something happen?" I knew Larry Jarrell personally and he offered to provide a platform to publish a book. We were the victim of some bad circumstances in what transpired. However, WTFC remain successful in what they do in the US and other markets and stand by their creators. I don't want to give anyone the impression that WTFC stiffed me in any way. Flux UK was a big success in America and it led to three of the four strips featured getting their own titles (which are due to debut this year at varying times), the other story had an artist pretty much disappear off the face of the Earth. Unfortunately we couldn't replace those titles with stories of similar or better quality and the antholgy died a death.

Future Noir is completely outwith WTFC and FLUX UK. This would be our own thing. I'm offering to help put the book together and try to garner some interest in publication. If we can produce a quality book I know that I can help get this book published. I have a few contacts with agents and editors who'd be very interested in this.

As I stated above, I'm doing this outwith Flux or What the Flux comics. All I'm offering is to help out and to write a story for the Anthology. I'll be doing a lot of the leg-work, hopefully with a few of the braver volunteers.

A Fistful of Comics was produced and sold at conventions only by the hard work of Millarworld creators. Future Noir will be as good, if not better, in quality and we will stand a decent chance of publication.

The important thing to remember in this is - nothing happens to creators who sit around and do the ordinary thing. you have to be outstanding in comics to get gigs. You have to make things happen. This is true in any creative field. I'm a prose writer and a film-maker and I can vouch for this. You have to go out and do things on your own that give those in the industry a slap in the face. you have to make them sit up and take notice that there is talent out there that can work for itself and produce it's own product.

I'm more than happy to field any more questions from anyone.

Let's get this thing off the ground and make it an anthology to remember!

[Sarah Horrocks]

Color/No? Page size?

[John Paul Fitch]

Colour. up to 10 pages.

size 7 x 10.5 inch. 300 DPI.

[ditta]

What's your email address, John?

[James L. Sarandis]

I may have some stories to submit. I tend to lean a bit more toward dramedy than excessively dark and bleak. Is that ok?

[John Paul Fitch]

What's your email address, John?

fluxukcomics@gmail.com

I may have some stories to submit. I tend to lean a bit more toward dramedy than excessively dark and bleak. Is that ok?

Yes, anything goes!

[niall doonan]

If I write a script for this, should I send it on to you John?

[mattgarvey1981]

nothing happens to creators who sit around and do the ordinary thing.

Very true
Cheers for answering my questions

[Paul Penna]

Hmm.

I think I have an idea... guess I better get writing.

[James L. Sarandis]

Is the anthology's name still Megatropolis? I liked that name. Also JP if you want to do those city designs I'd like to play with it. Furthermore in the interest of collaboration all of my characters and concepts used in this anthology will be public domain within the anthology to play with as you so choose.

Now for any of those going "but what if I want to use my story elsewhere?" All I'd ask is somewhere in the credits you'd credit me for the creation of the character. No currency would be required or asked, though if you want to buy me a beer I wouldn't mind.

[John Paul Fitch]

Is the anthology's name still Megatropolis? I liked that name. Also JP if you want to do those city designs I'd like to play with it. Furthermore in the interest of collaboration all of my characters and concepts used in this anthology will be public domain within the anthology to play with as you so choose. Now for any of those going "but what if I want to use my story elsewhere?" All I'd ask is somewhere in the credits you'd credit me for the creation of the character. No currency would be required or asked, though if you want to buy me a beer I wouldn't mind.

I haven't settled on the name but I also personally like Megatropolis.