Friday 24 April 2015

Stuff about Frank and ideas and shit Part 2


Part two of me talking bollocks.

It's kind of weird with Bastard Son, because I think this is the first time I've written a comic script where none of my influences for it have come from literature. Don't get me wrong, there are many writers out there that I massively admire and have influenced me thus far in my style, but for this book, it's mainly movies, metal music and my own nightmares.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm a big fan of the 'Slasher' films, (as you can probably tell from the Bastard Son 'trailer'). However, apart from the aforementioned lack of character development in some films, there are a bunch of other tropes that I've just got really sick of, here are a few:

  • Protagonists making stupid decisions that no one would actually make in real life when confronted with a blade-wielding psychopath.
  • Unironic use of of teenage stereotypes. The jock, the loose girl, the nerd, the black guy and the final girl. We rooted for Laurie Strode in Halloween because she was a realistic character, a decent person and she got her shit together. She had more than one dimension.
  • When you put the previous two points together, you find that you don't really care about/like the characters in the movie, this stops you rooting for them and therefore pretty much all tension in that movie is lost.
Now before you tell me that the above points don't cover all the important aspects of a horror film, I know they don't. For example, a good slasher flick needs a memorable antagonist, inventive kills and decent special effects, (preferably practical ones). On top of this, I haven't even touched on the importance of quality cinematography, score, acting and screenplay.

Since I haven't attempted a horror screenplay yet, I'm trying to iron out all the issues I have with tired cliches in comic form instead. Bastard Son is basically the horror franchise I always wanted to watch/read about.

Until next time, peace out fellow bastards,

Frank

P.S. Speaking of horror comics, here are some excellent titles that I'm currently reading:
Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson
Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock
October Faction by Steve Niles and Damien Worm

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