Suggestions for Future Themes
Now is also around the time of year when we begin prepping for what's to come -- especially what themes are to come!
We're always open to suggestions, but from time to time we like to open up a central place for people to come and offer ideas. So here it is! If you've got a theme you want to see, leave a comment and suggest it! If you like someone else's suggestion, leave a comment in reply and voice your support for it! Popular acclaim won't guarantee a theme will be used, but it'll definitely make that a lot more likely.
As you're brainstorming, consider some things we find make for effective themes:
Also, keep in mind that these are the themes we've done already, and these are the themes we're doing this year. We just did our first duplicate theme ever, and that of a theme last done in 2008 -- so we're open to repeats, but only if it's been a long while.
We're always open to suggestions, but from time to time we like to open up a central place for people to come and offer ideas. So here it is! If you've got a theme you want to see, leave a comment and suggest it! If you like someone else's suggestion, leave a comment in reply and voice your support for it! Popular acclaim won't guarantee a theme will be used, but it'll definitely make that a lot more likely.
As you're brainstorming, consider some things we find make for effective themes:
- Broad possibilities: Before suggesting a theme, take thirty seconds to brainstorm (very vague) story ideas that would fit it. If you can't come up with more than three, or if they're all really just the same story with slightly different settings, it's probably too narrow.
- Open to interpretation: Our Guys and Balls issue got a story about knitting. Our Hookers and Blackjack issue got a story about fishing. Our Wild Wild West issue was basically about everything west but cowboys. Not only do open themes encourage creativity, they keep the issue from being the same thing a dozen times.
- Tone-neutral: Okay, so once in a while we pick a theme with obvious comic implications. But those are better interspersed with ones that can go in multiple emotional directions.
- Understandable at face value: If the theme title is a reference, it shouldn't be something that only makes sense if you know what it's referencing. While things are always better if you get the joke, getting the joke can't be the only way to appreciate a prompt.
Also, keep in mind that these are the themes we've done already, and these are the themes we're doing this year. We just did our first duplicate theme ever, and that of a theme last done in 2008 -- so we're open to repeats, but only if it's been a long while.