Comic Artist Required for 15 Bible Curiosities!
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:56 am
Hello. My name is Mark and I’m a writer of novels and plays. I’m looking to pay a comic artist a decent wedge for 15 ‘Bible Curiosities’ comic strips, many with a feminist twist. Each one relates to a specific Bible scripture, all highlighting (with playful satire) the arrogant fears and/or suspect writing skills of some of the Christian and Jewish scholars that wrote the Bible. The comic strips are an important bit to the back-story of the main character in my latest novel (am part way through the 3rd draft): ’The Hood the Sad and the Cuddly.’ An odd fusion of magical realism and cyberpunk about the unconscious mind and other Jungian ideas that also, in small parts and one dramatic scene, offers a critique of the Catholic Church Institution without ruling out the potential God reality.
To define the comic book style I'm after I need to share some of the main character’s back-story. He draws the BC’s when he is 15-16 and up until then, lives a sheltered life due to the religious regime/home schooling set by his priest father, in which his comic strips (drawn secretly) is one way he expresses his rebellious streak. He only discovers that comic books exist a week before starting to draw them, when bunking off Sunday school at church to see a movie at the cinema and stopping at the closed comic book shop and looking at those displayed in the window.
So his style would be simple – depicting biblical times with a few modern quirks – and that of a teenager just learning that he has a talent for drawing and for biting satire that exposes some of the Bible absurdities. His simple style won’t be Manga or any other recognisable style/type as he wouldn’t have heard of them. (Sneak spoiler: Moses Egyptian wife wears a superhero cape for just a couple of frames in the last BC!) And his lack of awareness of style, will add a compelling substance/unique charm that reflects his naivety. There is Monty Python DNA running through the BCs so his simple, charming style will be like a Life of Brain comic – from a female perspective! So any Monty Python fans with feminist traits/values in abundance will have an advantage fitting the job description and playing around with the materials at hand with comic effects.
There is also potential for the artist to show the development of the main character’s ability to draw comic strips. This nuanced potential doesn’t have to be realised though.
Fun fact: I have deslexia and on one of Jesus Christ more famous miracles/acts of resourcefulness – and one of the BCs – in my revisions, I found that I’d written dishes instead of fishes
-It is important to me that the artist leaves a playful stamp on each comic strip that enables their own autonomy, within and beyond the tone and narrative I set with my words.
-There is lots of creative wiggle room to achieve this autonomy. For many of the simpler curiosities, I am eager for the artist to play around with and expand upon the premise/scenario I set with my words. Adding new features/nuances and dialogue contrasts/speech bubbles that add humorous bites to the satire.
-There are a few more involved strips where the creative wiggle room is still there, but not so much, especially one that is linked to a trait of the main character in the story.
-To my wordsmith mind, that has no experience as a comic strip artist, all 15 Bible Curiosities, apart from the most involved story-based one mentioned above, shouldn’t take more than ten frames.
Cheers for reading.
To define the comic book style I'm after I need to share some of the main character’s back-story. He draws the BC’s when he is 15-16 and up until then, lives a sheltered life due to the religious regime/home schooling set by his priest father, in which his comic strips (drawn secretly) is one way he expresses his rebellious streak. He only discovers that comic books exist a week before starting to draw them, when bunking off Sunday school at church to see a movie at the cinema and stopping at the closed comic book shop and looking at those displayed in the window.
So his style would be simple – depicting biblical times with a few modern quirks – and that of a teenager just learning that he has a talent for drawing and for biting satire that exposes some of the Bible absurdities. His simple style won’t be Manga or any other recognisable style/type as he wouldn’t have heard of them. (Sneak spoiler: Moses Egyptian wife wears a superhero cape for just a couple of frames in the last BC!) And his lack of awareness of style, will add a compelling substance/unique charm that reflects his naivety. There is Monty Python DNA running through the BCs so his simple, charming style will be like a Life of Brain comic – from a female perspective! So any Monty Python fans with feminist traits/values in abundance will have an advantage fitting the job description and playing around with the materials at hand with comic effects.
There is also potential for the artist to show the development of the main character’s ability to draw comic strips. This nuanced potential doesn’t have to be realised though.
Fun fact: I have deslexia and on one of Jesus Christ more famous miracles/acts of resourcefulness – and one of the BCs – in my revisions, I found that I’d written dishes instead of fishes
-It is important to me that the artist leaves a playful stamp on each comic strip that enables their own autonomy, within and beyond the tone and narrative I set with my words.
-There is lots of creative wiggle room to achieve this autonomy. For many of the simpler curiosities, I am eager for the artist to play around with and expand upon the premise/scenario I set with my words. Adding new features/nuances and dialogue contrasts/speech bubbles that add humorous bites to the satire.
-There are a few more involved strips where the creative wiggle room is still there, but not so much, especially one that is linked to a trait of the main character in the story.
-To my wordsmith mind, that has no experience as a comic strip artist, all 15 Bible Curiosities, apart from the most involved story-based one mentioned above, shouldn’t take more than ten frames.
Cheers for reading.