(no subject)
I wonder sometimes about trying to find an artist to help produce a (web)comic, folly of follies. Ideas have a tendency of sleeting wildly across my brain, and occasionally one that pings me hard is something that would work better in a more visual medium -- but I suck out loud when it comes to drawing, and anything more complicated than that is even worse.
One idea that's been poking my brain lately, mostly because of my recent choice in reading material, is a deconstruction of romantic comedy "harem" manga/anime. You know the kind, where a rather bland guy suddenly has a bunch of "quirky" women in his life who are, to a one, overbearing and probably a touch insane. The guy is obviously there for an audience stand-in, and survives being buffeted by stronger (and somewhat volatile) personalities along with the normal rules of a romantic comedy world that force him to look like a depraved pervert right up to the end.
Mostly, I want to break the hell out of that character. Seriously. Because nobody is actually half as nice as the generic manga guy surrounded by a batshit-insane unwanted harem, whose primary flaw is usually that he's too nice and too obliging of everything female. I want to put one of those guys through the wringer and break him in half. And stomp on the pieces. And make it clear that it's his godsdamned fault for being unable to erect boundaries and be his own person, instead trying to be amorphous and pleasing to everyone because he's too afraid of someone being disappointed in him to openly go for the woman he wants.
Because I hate generic audience stand-in manga guys.
One idea that's been poking my brain lately, mostly because of my recent choice in reading material, is a deconstruction of romantic comedy "harem" manga/anime. You know the kind, where a rather bland guy suddenly has a bunch of "quirky" women in his life who are, to a one, overbearing and probably a touch insane. The guy is obviously there for an audience stand-in, and survives being buffeted by stronger (and somewhat volatile) personalities along with the normal rules of a romantic comedy world that force him to look like a depraved pervert right up to the end.
Mostly, I want to break the hell out of that character. Seriously. Because nobody is actually half as nice as the generic manga guy surrounded by a batshit-insane unwanted harem, whose primary flaw is usually that he's too nice and too obliging of everything female. I want to put one of those guys through the wringer and break him in half. And stomp on the pieces. And make it clear that it's his godsdamned fault for being unable to erect boundaries and be his own person, instead trying to be amorphous and pleasing to everyone because he's too afraid of someone being disappointed in him to openly go for the woman he wants.
Because I hate generic audience stand-in manga guys.