Darrin Kelley wrote:Before this thread, I had been doing some work on my own. Going back to Bronze Age comics and analyzing what made them the great thing they are. Trying to find that magic element that made them special. And I believe I have found that precious element.
Bronze Age comics and the characters born of them were about establishing characters. Telling good stories along the way. Focusing on those characters and developing them as they went through their series. Providing a character's personal journey for the readers to follow along with the character. Bronze Age books were focused almost entirely on the characters. Telling their stories.
So I think that's your entry point into making a good character focused book. And you don't need any gimmicks or crazy sales tactics to be successful in that. Tell a good story, and people will remember it. Gimmicks only draw fleeting interesting. Pursuit of creating good stories creates classics that will always be remembered.
I concur with your assessment completely Darrin, because you are spot on. I also had an idea for a single anthology book, that due to not having enough money to put a down payment on a house, i will not be producing. It was called Mimesis: The general idea was that there had been an electircal tech villainess called Doctor Tesla (Doctor Elizabeth Tesla), who had for 3 long years had a death grip on the cities costumed crime, until eventually she was caught by the local super hero team.
While being transported to the courthouse (with 6 dummy vehicles & 2 other villains), a teleporting villain on Tesla's payroll shot a Rocket at the vehicle, causing it to crash. Shortly after a block away a young teenage boy on a Vespa discovers a purple slime trail leading into an alley way. Curious, he follows the trail, leaning over to touch some of the slime (which gives him a little shock to his finger). In the alley way he discovers a naked teenage girl (implied nudity of course), covered in slime, an in the dirt was sprawled the word "mimesis."
An the chapter closes, as Department of Meta-Human affairs officers (federal level policing agency, kind of like the FBI, but Meta-Human based) arrive on the scene of the vehicle crash, opens up the vehicles blast doors & reveals that not only was the vehicle shot with a RPG, its also run into a huge piece of metal, which has pierced the vehicle down the middle & Doctor Tesla, leaving nothing but a metal skeleton, some wires (because Tesla was into technological self improvement) & a whole heap of the slime.
An from there its all about establish the status quo, who is the mystery girl, where did she come from, whats up with thia slime, what is the significance of the word "mimesis" scrawled in the slime, whats her connection to Dr Tesla, who are these D.M.A Agents, whats there connection to the slime, where did Mimesis get her super powers from & how does Doctor Tesla apparently retake over her position as crime boss of Tower City after we've clearly seen her corpse & is there going to be a romance between our two main characters.
Yeah, i stole the best angles from the best the medium has to offer: The "girl living in my house" paradigm from romance manga, the costume super heroics of bronze age comics & the awesome story telling of a contemporary novels.
Alas, it is not to be.
