MY JOURNEY IN CREATING A HORROR COMIC

Wow...it's done...well, partly done.

On September 27th, while out walking my dog, I met a couple and talked with them about my future plans. I told them that I wanted to bring my skills as a screenwriter to the forefront and was looking for work in that field. For some reason, I also told them about my idea for a horror comic. I described to them all of the crazy things that would happen in the story and they visibly shocked. For some reason, they suddenly had to leave.

After returning home, I thought about their reaction and wondered if this was a sign that I should pursue this idea after all.

So I dug up my notes and quickly wrote out a scene that I had created years ago. I drafted the scene over the course of an evening and presented it to my friends. Some said it was crazy and others said that I absolutely had to do it.

On October 4th, 2022, I began drawing the first page. I researched 12th century English history and mythology. Of course, the story is my own, but I wanted to incorporate historical events and adapt them to my story. I wrote the script while sketching out the first few pages and creating visual concepts. Creating characters, worlds, and events comes naturally to me. The first draft of the script was completed in about two weeks. I immediately applied it to the first few pages and made changes to my sketches. I continued to refine the script and my vision for the world of my comic became clearer. Then I began seriously drawing my comic.

I spent Christmas with my parents. On Christmas Eve, after my father had gone to bed, I drew the main character of my comic for the first time in the way that we will come to know them. Perhaps my father's presence helped me that night because I created the personalities of the main character's family circle. I already had the events and dialogue for them, but their mannerisms, body language, expressions, and conveyed emotions were born that night.

My father will turn 80 years old this spring. He looked at my drawings during my visit and said that I still knew how to illustrate. Then he asked me if the story had to be so brutal. I told him that the villain of the story had to feel real so that the reader could empathize with the protagonist's distress. In addition, I explained the theme of the story to him and he understood. Of course, I also understand my father's thoughts on the violence in my comic. For the last ten years, he has seen me produce family-friendly content, and now this current project is far from that. Let's put it this way, this is more of a banned fairytale for children. Additionally, societal issues cannot be addressed without a more pointed expression. Finally, creative people like us have to innovate and do different things from time to time. At least I feel more alive than I have in a long time.

Today, on Thursday, April 20th, I have sketched the story from beginning to end. The thing is 84 pages long. Some pages have also been inked and some have been colored. Now I need to finish drawing the sketches, continue inking and coloring. I hope to finish this soon so that I can start making the second book. Its content will be even more intense than this one.