Cumulative Improv?

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

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Ignorant Cretin
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Cumulative Improv?

Post by Ignorant Cretin »

The idea of an improvisational comic is very cool--especially those done by Scott. Suppose other professionals could join in on a work already in progress? We have done this at our forum and it turned out to be heaps of fun.
Veleno
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Post by Veleno »

I've actually been having similar thoughts lately. Here's a few different versions:

1) Pass-Along Comic
Optionally someone will suggest a title. First person draws the first few panels of the story. Then people start taking turns (no specific turn order, just that one person can't post twice in a row) adding their own panels. There would likely be rules for the minimum and maximum amount of panels that can be added in one post.

2) Reverse Pass-Along Comic
Aproximately the same as the previous, but the comic is written in reverse order. Again having a title is optional. First person draws the last few panels, the next people draw the panels leading up to them, and so on.

3) Converted Pass-Along Story
If there are many more writers than artists, then the story could be written as a typical pass-along story, with rules to the number of words, etc. that each person could add. Then once a end-point is found, one or more artists would begin drawing their rendition of the story.

4) Exquisite Corpse Comic
Click for a definition of what an Exquisite Corpse is.
This one would be harder to do online, as it requires everything but the last few panels to be unseen by whomever will be making the next continuation of the story. To do this kind in a sketchbook would make things easier since panels could be covered before passing it on to the next artist. Once things have ended, everything hidden will be revealed.

5) Exquisite Corpse Comic Variant
This version would be easier to do online than the previous. Basically, in this version, each person would post the beginning and ending panels of the part they made. Thus, each new person will see small snippets of the story, and will use them to make their part. Again, once things have ended, everything hidden will be revealed. One person should be appointed to recieve the revealed version of each addition in case the original artist doesn't show up when it comes time to reveal the comic. Whomever is appointed should not be allowed to participate in the actual making of the comic since they will know what has been hidden (though the person can put down the Initial part of the comic since nothing would have been revealed yet).

Suppose that's it on that subject for now.
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Greg Stephens
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Post by Greg Stephens »

We had some comic jams in this forum. Some good things were done at the time.

A variant that I thought would be good is an "invite jam" where each person drew one panel, then invited somebody else to do the next panel. That way it would get around to more people than would be initially aware of it, and each person would be responsible not only for the integrity of their own panel, but in choosing a person appropriate to make the next one.

Edited to fix link- Doh!
Last edited by Greg Stephens on Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by zerofoks »

I'd like to join anything that I could bring to eternal name and fame with my interaction.
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Ignorant Cretin
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Post by Ignorant Cretin »

Greg Stephens wrote:We had some comic jams in this forum. Some good things were done at the time.

A variant that I thought would be good is an "invite jam" where each person drew one panel, then invited somebody else to do the next panel. That way it would get around to more people than would be initially aware of it, and each person would be responsible not only for the integrity of their own panel, but in choosing a person appropriate to make the next one.
Leave it to a cretin to ignore the locked forum. :roll: But dang, that's some good stuff there. What I was thinking was maybe an official Improv with more than one artist?
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Post by Veleno »

I had already noticed that there was the comic jams forum. That was actually why I hadn't posted anything on this already.
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Post by Ben Sutter »

Here comes a fairly big idea, so forgive me.

I think it would be possible to have a site where up to, say, 20 people could sign on to a single "book". (The number of books would, of course, be based on the total number of contributers to this site.) Each person, when they entered the site, would be given a title. (For a more in-depth look at the type of thing I'm writing about, check out the "Continual Comic Sketchbook" topic on this forum).

So, each person must create a small comic (to keep the pace of the "book" going, they would have to be fairly small, maybe a few panels each) and post them on the site, along with a title for whomever is next in line.

Of course, you could always join more than one "book" to contribute to, and the continuation of several different trains of thought might well be interesting to all who just want to watch from the sidelines.

I'm no programmer, but I think this would be great fun.
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