From the cave paintings of prehistory to the blockbuster films and TV series of the 21st century, visual storytelling has always been one of the defining activities of our species. Comics require a tiny fraction of the labor demanded by the fully moving image, and therefore have the potential to be a much more egalitarian medium. With nothing more than marks on a canvas, even a single person can create entire worlds, populate them with characters, and immerse their readers in a story.
I feel extremely fortunate to be able to devote myself to this endeavor full time for the foreseeable future. Although this is my first time doing something like this, and I’m sure the work will be highly imperfect, I hope I can create something that will entertain and move people. In any case, I’m looking at the long game—if it all goes according to plan, I might be able to make something that’s truly good in a decade or so.
The Story
I’ve nursed the concept behind Automata Prophecy for several years. The basis for the idea is that if strong AI was achieved through the simulation of a human brain (rather than through a programmed set of rules), then androids would fundamentally have the same qualities and flaws as humans: the same drives for power and happiness, the same capacity for love, hate and fear, the same ability to hold false beliefs with total confidence, and the same propensity for both cooperation and conflict. Because they can be designed to be smarter, stronger, and generally better versions of humans, it would make sense that the “robot class” would consolidate political power over time, through both violent and diplomatic means, but if they were fundamentally human, why would they wield this power to establish an ultra-technological dystopia, where everything is dark, gloomy, urban, and metallic? It seems equally likely that they would guide humanity back to a lifestyle more in balance with nature, more in touch with our own humanity—a return to smaller, tight-knit communities, held together by a moral code rooted in spirituality.
In other words, the setting of Automata Prophecy is a distant future in which robot hippies have shaped the global political order.
But of course, there is no such thing as a Utopia. In order to find the story in this new world order, all I had to do was look for the rips at the seams and pull on the thread.
My goal is to write the type of story I loved as a teenager: an epic adventure, in which the protagonist has a quest that involves travel through a variety of beautiful but dangerous landscapes, and contextualized within a broader armed conflict. My priorities are for the reader to fall in love with the characters and to turn the page. Originality and literary depth are also important to me, but come second for now.
The Format
I love reading comics on my phone. In bed, with the lights off and the brightness almost all the way down, my phone’s screen turns into a little window into a different world. It can be a very immersive experience, similar to what I remember it feeling like to read comics as a kid. I equally love to read comics on physical paper in my sun-drenched living room on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It was, therefore, really important to me the format be conducive to both.
In my experience, made-for-print comics converted to digital are very awkward to read on a phone. On the other hand, I like the webtoons-style infinite scroll format, but I find that vertical panels can make it feel like you’re watching the story through a keyhole. For a comic like mine, where the natural landscapes were a key part of the art, it would simply not work.
This is why I settled on having all my panels be of a consistent, wide-screen aspect ratio. On a phone, they fit perfectly in landscape mode. Scrolling through the panels gives a similar feeling to watching an animated movie. On paper, four of the panels can be stacked on top of each other, making for a page that is less dense than most contemporary comics, but not by much. Formatting the comic for both digital and paper will require virtually no additional work.
By limiting myself to a consistent panel-size, I’ve relinquished a lot of the storytelling techniques made possible by a flexible page layout. On the flip-side, I’ve reduced the amount of decisions I need to make. We’ll see how it works out… I may have to tweak the format/allow for more flexibility if I feel too constrained by it.
The Art
The art style is based on 2D and pseudo-2D animation, namely Avatar/Legend of Korra, The Dragon Prince, and Studio Ghibli (esp. Princess Mononoke).
I knew that I wanted detailed, painterly backgrounds, since the story is set in mountainous/forested landscapes inspired by my time living in Washington State. I also knew there was no possible way I could paint all those backgrounds by hand and publish this comic within a reasonable time frame. After much experimentation, I found a way of using Unreal Engine to create the backgrounds in 3D, and use a variety of filters/paint-over in order to make them look more like illustrations. I will publish a detailed post on this process at some point. The result is not really beautiful, per se – I certainly would not hang it on my wall – but it captures the feeling that I’m looking for.
As for the characters, my reasoning behind modeling the style off of animation (rather than other comics) is that animated characters are designed to be as efficient to draw as possible, since they need to be re-drawn thousands of times. At the same time, it’s a style that is familiar and appealing to many people, since animation is very popular. Therefore, I decided to leverage the same techniques animators use: a consistent line quality, simple outfits and just a subtle indication of clothing folds, and one or maybe two layers of block shadows. Since the story is a serious one with mature themes, I kept the proportions fairly realistic and not overly stylized.
After making the first dozen panels this way, I have high confidence that this will be a very efficient art style with decent results. The faster I can make these panels, the more story I can get to my audience! I do find the art is currently a little stiff, but I actually think that has more to do with my skill than with these design decisions. Over time, I am certain that the art will improve as I grow as an artist.
What’s Next
That’s it for now, I’ve got a lot of work to do! Over the course of the next few months, my priority is writing, with a little bit of time spent developing concept art for the characters and environments. I also plan on learning digital sculpting with Z-Brush, as I’m considering sculpting my characters to help maintain the likeness across a variety of angles (you might be able to tell it’s a bit wobbly right now).